wimpy

yeah, that's right.
It is important, I don't see google dropping PR any time soon, but they are clearly tweeking the algo to defeat various forms of link spam.

I betcha they are starting to use google toolbar data. Actual surfer activity is right in line with google philosophy of "people voting for sites."

Still, a few good links is the quickest way to decent rankings. If you're shooting for high competition keywords I'd say it's almost required.

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