Google to treat links without http as normal links?

[fargo1999]

Since now Gmail recognizes and automatically activates links to domains posted without www/http, for example: domain.com, I believe Google treats 'inactive' links equally to 'active' links. The question is if they treat it as a 'dofollow' or 'nofollow' link and if they give the same weight as to an 'active' link.

I believe they give them the same weight as to an active 'dofollow' link (why they wouldn't?).

That would have a tremendous effect on link building and SEO strategies. Do you agree?

[tedster]

Yes, it would be nice (I'm thinking of several NY Times articles right now) but they're not going to do it, IMO. Either there is an anchor tag or there is not, and if the user can't click on it, then no link juice. I'm sure Google does "use" url mentions that aren't linked, but it's not ever the same as a full <a> element.

[ken_b]

I'm torn on this.

Yes I'd like it if the inactive links on high quality sites (usually newspapers) were counted. But there's more than a few on sites (think scrapers) that I'd just as soon not be associated with at all, even if I got some minimal help from the link.

And I sometimes post inactive links to sites I'm unsure of, I don't want to completely ignore some of these links, but I don't want to even give them an active "nofollow" link either. (links to some myspace type pages usually)

[fargo1999]

But the bottom line is the same - whether you put an anchor tag or not the reference is there and the reader is informed about it too. And I think the reference is what matters for Google, not the technical aspects of linking.

[dstiles]

This whole "link in gmail" thing is potentially spammy.

Since a major amount of spam comes through google, if they act on ANY link, properly formatted or not, they are likely to aid the spammers.

Pushing "link juice" to spam/malware domains could, if they're careless, push those domains up the SERPS. Don't forget that millions of emails go out with the same spam/malware domain in them every day, sometimes for several days before they're killed off.

[Samizdata]

I wouldn't equate Gmail with the public web.

If it is on a website surrounded by anchor tags and uses a valid URI it is a hyperlink.

If it is on a website and just says "example.com" it is a piece of text, and not a link at all.

Long may it remain so - I can currently mention a website I dislike without some idiotic automated process turning it into a clickable link that search engines may count as a vote in its favour.

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