Plain text URLs that are not hyperlinks

[true_INFP]

Does Google treat URLs that are not actual hyperlinks the same way as hyperlinks?

For example, does the first of those pass PR? (suppose the hyperlink points to www.example.com, not to WebmasterWorld):

[example.com...]

[url=http://www.example.com/]https://www.example.com/[/url]

[tedster]

This question has come up several times - and Google reps have confirmed what others here have said. In order to transfer PR there must be a hyperlink. A plain text url might be used for discovering that the page exists - but it sends no juice to that page.

[g1smd]

Interestingly, In Google WMC I see that I have some incoming 'links' from Word Documents - so it looks like it isn't just links from xHTML pages that are counted now.

[Asia_Expat]

Interesting you should mention that g1smd. I noticed that too... with the addition of some links from indexed .pdf documents noted by Google, one of which was from a well know publishers of educational resources, listing a page on my website alongside a couple of big business names in my field.

I wouldn't like to speculate how such links might affect rank... but I was delighted with the recognition for an article that I'd written.

[edited by: Asia_Expat at 2:09 am (utc) on May 27, 2009]

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 5:56 am (utc) on May 27, 2009]
[edit reason] edited specific [/edit]

[eltercerhombre]

Making sure there's no PR passed is something I would like to check as it would be interesting to do some controlled test.

But as said above, in my experience, PDF & Word links are reported in WMT. Also, plain urls (also those included in javascript) are used for discovery.

[rowtc2]

g1smd ,in Word or pdf can be included hyperlinks.

[true_INFP]

Yes. As far as the topic of this thread is concerned, it doesn't matter whether the URL is contained in a HTML document or in another type of document (.pdf, .doc, etc.)

What matters is whether the URL is a hyperlink or just a plain-text address.

[true_INFP]

By the way, inherently, plain-text documents (including traditional Usenet posts and emails) can never contain actual hyperlinks (even if the client software transforms plain-text URLs into hyperlinks, client-side, they are still not real hyperlinks).