Here's the thing - people did that because Google stressed that anchor text for links are important.

They have to be "relevant" and descriptive is good. The anchor text is supposed to be a "white hat" and legal technique.

This technique makes sense for users and so why would something like that be penalized? It doesnt make sense.

I mean, I produce web sites and web marketing work for small businesses. I also produce other self-owned properties that I use to diversify revenue streams. Now, I'm still small and do this part-time, but a lot of folks I've helped I put a link to my design/marketing consulting site. Why? It's good business practice for me. Referrals. Why should I be penalized and not be able to find my own website in a searchh for my company name, based upon links to my site that Google deems "spam" when I do it as good business practice? It doesn't make sense.

I would love to believe that Google is broken, that some SNAFU occured and Google HQ is on Red Alert (arooooga! aroooooga! arooooga! Alert! Alert! Condition Red!) I would love to dismiss it as that. But that seems like a serious, SERIOUS miscalculation on Google's part, and seriously, as a public company, I dont see how Google would walk into that.

My thinking is that Google is introducing some new filter and right now, targeting SEOs to see how well it works. I think this new filter will lead to Google cornering more of their SEM services = and increasing their revenue stream.

Look at Yahoo! As a pure Internet company, Yahoo has plenty of revenue streams. Look at the ad revenues they get just on their website. They have domain registration and hosting, Yahoo stores, etc. There are numerous revenue streams for Yahoo. Google, while they do well, does not have as many diverse revenue streams.

I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist - pragmatist. I think Google is doing something and testing this new filter in a bid to introduce some new SEO/SEM service. It makes sense - public company trading at nearly $200/share - which is down $3/share today - shareholders want results...have high expectations.