Is this PR rank manipulation legal

[subzerohero]

I was wondering if having stealth links attached to free site counters is legal in Google's books. These counters are distributed by sites that then charge other sites to have hyperlinks attached to the graphics.

To me this seems like it undermines the whole function of page rank...

The background on this is that I did the following link check in google "link:www.groundfighter.com". This is a PR7 site and there are hundreds and hundreds of pages that linked to www.groundfighter.com with no apparent reason to link to that site. This included sorority pages, astronomical observatory sites and anti-domestic violence sites. They all had a counter at the bottom with a hyperlink to www.groundfighter.com (courtesy of http://www.free-counter-plus.com/, http://www.mega-stats.com/ and some other free counter sites).

[cbp]

Its not against the law - ie its not illegal.

If I provided something for free (eg a counter) for use on websites, I would expect a link back to me.

These counters are distributed by sites that then charge other sites to have hyperlinks attached to the graphics.

But that is of concern if these site are paying for it, as google say:

Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank.

The problem is - how can Google detect it via an algorithm?

All links help PR, but off-theme links (which are really what you are talking about) may not be helpful in other theoretical parts of the ranking algorithm (ie TopicSensitive PR, if google are doing something like that). So the benefit that these sites are getting may not be that much anyway.

I would report this to google, but do not hold breath:
http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

(BTW - ignore the Google link: command results)

CBP

[subzerohero]

Thanks for the feedback. The page in question DOES have a pretty high PR (7) so I suspect that getting all those spammy links from unsuspecting sites IS working