diberry - 4:47 pm on Jun 17, 2012 (gmt 0)

And if it IS the reason, will the recovery last or get smashed by the next Panda update, which seems to focus more on linkage?

I've wondered about something like this. A top site in one of my niches has an incredible number of links in the sidebar, arranged in ways to help visitors narrow in on what they want to find. It really is totally useful to visitors. What I don't know is whether Google can tell it's useful, and therefore likes it, or if the site is just such a top quality authority site that it can get by with all sorts of things Google wouldn't let the rest of us do.