Rustybrick of Search Engine Roundtable covering Matt Cutts (Google Engineer) at PubCon WebmasterWorld Conference:

Matt was using some of his own tools. And let me tell you, it was scary. He was asking questions, why do you have links from this site. It shows that your part of this and that network. Why are you doing reciprocal linking with this and that group of people?

I wonder if Matt Cutts would let me play with his link tools for a couple hours. I would promise not to use it on any competitor’s sites. I would actually use it to study the linking patterns of older sites that rank very well across multiple channels. One theory I have is that sites that have a very high percentage of deeps links and repeated links from trusted sites over time are more likely to be considered authority sites.

Something I wrote on Threadwatch.org a few weeks back:

-Think about a good college research paper. Is a research project citied once in the paper? Mostly like a research project will be citied multiple times and different sections of the projected will be referenced each time. Remember algothrims are created by individuals who commonly have PhDs. Research papers are second nature to them. It only makes sense they will factor in what is familiar to them.

- Links from other authority sites developed over time. Meaning these sites tend to mentioned (link to) the site every few months or years. Similar to how you recommend your mechanic a few times a year to different people. If you only recommend them once they are obviously not that great.

What do you say Matt? Can I use your tools for a couple hours of research?

More information on what Matt Cutts said:
SEOMoz.org: Cutts speaks out
Graywolf: Paid Links, Pubcon and Matt Cutts
Search Engine Roundtable: Google Knows Link Networks Well