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Now naturally searchking where they are doing it openly is of course a case where google should penalize for it. But in a case where it is done subtly, the ad is worth the PR. Maybe google won't view it that way since they aren't the ones getting paid, but there is something to be said for the seriousness of a site willing to put backing into their site.
I'm not 100% set on this in my mind, but just food for thought...
Thought some more about this, and I'd say in the majority of cases, especially after looking into it a bit as to how much effort and cost it would be to pay for PR, sites that are willing to "pay for PR" "deserve" that PR, well kind of..
Hypothethical......what if googles search pages had Pagerank, thus you could buy PR on those pages by buying adwords.
How much PR does Bill Gates deserve if he invests $1b in buying links? :) Or what about the 'value' of the link, if people are selling it at different prices, do they deserve it "more" by being ripped off or buying dirt cheap links?
IMHO, the only way buying PR would "improve" anything outside the benefactors of a PR/$ deal is if the results were poorer in the first place.
Google frown upon anything that's intended to manipulate the algo ..... so Id guess their idea of a page "deserving" bought PR will never change.
