Some thinkings on the Forbes - links selling episode

[adam westrop]

I looked at this one more time - Google: Forbes Busted For Selling Links and noticed the key phrase used within the note Google sent to Forbes-

"Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links on your site pointing to other sites that could be intended to manipulate PageRank "

So does this mean that Google's algo can identify unnatural links and potentially you will get zero credit for them, or has someone noticed the links at Google and taken action?

Anyone got any totally irrelevant text links or sitewide links and seen any negative effects?

The obvious way to protect yourself is to buy links on related sites, but I am interested to know whether Google's algo is smart enough to detect relation.... I mean some relations are obvious... Some are not.... Think of camping...... Would Google know that a site about camping that is linking to a 'Girl Guides' or 'fly zapper' sites are actually kind of related?! I