Google Answers Spammers

[GapBridge]

http://www.google.com/intl/en/webmasters/2.html
"setting up pages/links with the sole purpose of fooling search engines may result in permanent removal from our index"

[GapBridge]

Google was initially called BackRub
because of their unique approach to link analysis, they were the first to design an engine specifically with link popularity as the focal
so link popularity has been practiced by the old seos since it started... just the last two years has it become a buzz for the "new ones" which led to destruction of their results.
All that will change very soon.