I might be being a bit blond here, but why even the need to have "rel=nofollow" at all?
I can understand on "user" generated content, but when it's a link to a relevant and respected website on the topic in hand, than that isn't a good or valid reason to use the "nofollow" syntax. In fact as stated already, that's a large part in how the big search engines work. Google isn't likely to start penalising the BBC site as it's no doubt on a "respected site" / "white list" somewhere else within the Google system... Gavin Pearce | Web Developer | TBS The Columbia Centre, Market Street, Bracknell, RG12 1JG, United Kingdom Direct: +44 (0) 1344 403488 | Office: +44 (0) 1344 306011 | Fax: +44 (0) 1344 427138 MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Yahoo: pearce.gavin http://www.tbs.uk.com TBS is a trading name of Technology Services International Limited. Registered in England, company number 2079459. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Martin Belam Sent: 04 November 2008 09:36 To: backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk Subject: Re: [backstage] "Greedy BBC Blocks External Links" I don't think it is "evil", and as I've pointed out on their blog and on Sphinn, since Patrick at Blogstorm himself applies "nofollow" to all outbound links it is a little rich to be complaining that the BBC doesn't provide 'trusted' links. Interesting point about how Google can be expected to run a trusted link based algorithm in the future, but lets not forget it was the search engines that concocted "nofollow" themselves, and Google is these days notorious for penalising sites in the rankings that it 'believes' are displaying paid links that are not clearly marked as advertising. I've blogged a little about the Blogstorm post as well - http://www.currybet.net/cbet_blog/2008/11/bbc_news_clumsy_linking.php cheers, martin - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/ This message has been scanned for viruses by Viatel MailControl - http://viatel.mailcontrol.com/ - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
