Demonstrating once again why journalists should not only blog but monitor incoming links, the BBC’s response to the recent story about ‘holding back Google juice’ in its linking came to my attention as I was scanning the incoming links to this blog. John O’Donovan, Chief Architect, BBC FM&T Journalism, says “nothing sinister”, and:

“We are rolling out improvements to the way this works, as already used on some other parts of the website. Essentially we use JavaScript to retain SEO (“Search Engine Optimisation“) and Google juice for external sites, while we will still be able to track external links. Search Engines, casual observers and those without JavaScript will still see the original URL.”