aristotle - 4:41 pm on Oct 3, 2012 (gmt 0)

@lewis1
Yes I understand your point. But I think it depends on the type of website. My main sites are about controversial social issues, and for that reason they do regularly pick up "natural" backlinks without any involvement on my part, because people are interested in the issues they cover. But a site about a common "run of the mill" product, as in your example, probably won't attract many natural backlinks, even if it's an informative high quality website.

I think this is a good example of the types of complicated distinctions that the Google algorithm has to deal with.