Footer links and Google
 

It seems Google almost ignores footer links (moreover these are footer link farms) these days. I think it makes sense. Honestly when you use footer links you don't care about their visibility, you actually don't want to send visitors thru these links, you just use them for SEO purposes and Google knows it.

I'm seriously going to stop buying/trading footer links.

I wonder just how significant they are anymore.
It probably is (somewhat) dependant on PR.

yeah for sure uhuh

Seem to remember google submitting a patent for giving outbound links different weights based on their position on the page...

yep...

They take A LOT of information into account and one should always take into consideration what other kind of patterns that could easily be identified if Google wanted to.

Remember kids, never discuss link trades over gmail... (no, I'm not kidding)