On February 26, 2009, Google software engineer Matt Cutts collected questions on Google Moderator and answered many of them on video.
Eric Enge from Boston, MA asked:
Do you think web search will ever make use of references (web site mentions that are not links) as a ranking signal?
The short answer is: we do look at URL names mentioned in plain text, but we cannot admin it, because then people would abuse it :)
adrianTNT 1 year ago
Matt,
In reference to your video about using references other than links. I think I asked a year or so ago if you've ever considered using non-link references from juried academic papers, which are indexed by Google Academic. Whatvere you opinion of academics, I doubt they are going to load their paper with link spam.
Morris
WebOneO 2 years ago
Matt have you lost weight?
roguestarproductions 2 years ago 2