GMail link tracking?

is it true that it helps?

[Tearabite]

A friend told me that Google tracks links clicked on from Gmail messages.
Does anyone know if this is true, and if it is, how those clicks help or hurt the site?

?

[tedster]

I've heard this idea being kicked around, but somehow I doubt that Gmail links would help in ranking. Just one example -- so many commercial emails use dedicated urls for tracking pruposes that it would be a crazy thing to fold into the SERPs, I think.

Still, Google definitely can see the data, so they certainly might try spidering a url that only appeared in an email. Does any one have an experience that relates here, rather than my theoretical guesswork?