Does Google now read javascript links?

[jonnyfolk]

I recently read an article that said it was possible to protect your site from a potentially harmful link to another site by placing the link in javascript. I am interested in doing this because I want to link to some information on another site but have looked at their reciprocal links page and it seems quite spammy - if they go down, I don't want to go down with them!

My question is, since the article was written in 2002, does this technique work, what's the best code to use, and is there a better way (apart from not linking at all)?

[treeline]

Welcome to webmasterworld.

It appears Google often finds links in javascript now, but not always. If you're trying something risky I'd look for another way. One option is the new nofollow tag, however remember that any good technique for being slimy that isn't standard practice amongst innocent webmasters puts you at risk of being identified by a search engine as up to mischief...