Link spam neighborhoods

[paulgl]

Anybody notice some sites seemingly avoiding looking like they
have link spam?

I got an email from a client who pay monthly for a text ad saying they
don't want to be on the same page as a payday loan ad that I also
had. I was able to juggle a few things. They did not want to be
on the same page as a seemingly spam link like payday loans.

I also notice some news sites not directly linking to any company
mentioned like they used to. Nofollow does not seem to be an option
here, as they seemingly don't want to look like a spam link
neighborhood or something. Instead, I see them giving a non
hyperlink text mention with just domain.com, or some use
a url shortening service, like bit.ly and don't use anchor text.

Anybody here of anything on this or have any ideas?

Paul