Google lists links with nofollow tags

[Paz]

I know Yahoo and MSN count links with nofollow tags because they've said so publically, and I've seen them using the link: operator in those search engines.

I was never sure about how Google treated nofollow links until I looked at the links of a site Capita (http://www.capita-ld.co.uk) using Google's Webmaster Tools.

I found a juicy .gov.uk link here (http://www.cre.gov.uk/Default.aspx?textonly=1&LocID=0hgnew0gk&RefLocID=0hg00k001&Lang=EN&htm) and went to check it out finding this;

http://www.digital-m.co.za/images/google-nofollow.gif

I have a toolbar that automatically highlights nofollow tags, and you can see the link to a Capita pdf doc with the nofollow tag highlighted in blue.

So unless the nofollow tag has gone up very recently, it looks like Google are counting links with nofollow tags somehow. Google have already urged people to put up nofollow tags if they can't vouch for a link. It's probably likely that a nofollow tag doesn't pass any trust, pagerank, whatever... but it must at least pass anchor text mustn't it?

Cheers,
Paz.

[Chatmaster]

Google have already urged people to put up nofollow tags if they can't vouch for a link. It's probably likely that a nofollow tag doesn't pass any trust, pagerank, whatever... but it must at least pass anchor text mustn't it?

Cheers,
Paz.

I think you are spot on with this one. I believe the nofollow tag is a way for a webmaster to ensure that a link doesn't effect the rankings of his site in a negative manner.