On a related but parenthetical note, the head of search quality at Google has a background in artificial intelligence. As Google’s algorithms improve, I think they will be able to detect artificial patterns of linking intended to manipulate rankings with an amazing degree of accuracy. (I don’t think they’re quite there yet though.)
Any SEO campaign for Google that’s going to work on a long term basis is probably going to begin with their webmaster guidelines, which are clearly listed here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html.
You can learn a lot from Google’s quality guidelines. Their execution isn’t perfect, but it’s never a bad idea to know what their stated goals and guidelines are.
Cheers everyone! :cheers: