There is a good summary published by Forbes magazine on the issue of buying text links and how Google is handling these within their search algorithms. Over the past 6 months there has been a growing debate about whether Google is actively penalising companies for buying text links (or sponsored links) and how the search engine is able to differentiate between those that are purchased and those that are legitimately developed.

It would appear that Google is trying to crack down on the growing trend, with evidence of sites using this technique being penalised. Google is also asking for information on such practices and generating a climate of fear or uncertainty about whether such techniques should or could be used. It's yet another situation where web marketers look to capitalise on the ability to achieve high rankings on Google and, in return, the search engine attempting to prevent inappropriate manipulation of their results.