Can plain text be a link?

[MrStitch]

If my website is mentioned in an article, or anywhere for that matter, does google count that as a link.... even if the text is not set up as a link?

[Halfdeck]

>>SOME weight is given to them

The reason that page ranks may be due to onpage factors, not due to a boost from a url citation. I'm not buying any of this till I see a live test case :)

[soapystar]

im glad your not buying cause im not selling. If you dont understand the foundation of what im saying then am i bovered? :)
I laid out a factual case and did not say anything other than this:

a page linked ONLY by a plain text link achieved a ranking above pages linked by correctly formatted links.

Those who know how to sort facts and THENNNNNNN apply theory will make use of that. Those that need to have a theory before accepting any facts will have my best wishes for the future.

[Jane_Doe]

I'll try this again, since my last post isn't showing up.....

To parphrase an answer on non clickable links counting as backlinks from in a Q&A from a competing forum (evidently one whose URL dare not be mentioned) Matt Cutts said it's best to use the hyperlink, but they have a switch they can flip either way in their code. The Yahoo and Ask reps said it's best to get an active link.

[edited by: Jane_Doe at 9:33 pm (utc) on July 9, 2006]