I don’t like the nofollow attribute. In fact I think I’m starting to hate it. Why? Because of the extensive use for purposes it wasn’t meant for. Linking is the basis of the web. And therefore it plays a major role in search. Offering the possibility for nofollowing links distorts this structure. In this article I will highlight some types of links which shouldn’t be nofollowed.
But first of all, let’s take a look at the original purpose of the nofollow attribute as stated in the article “Preventing comment spam” on the official Google blog:

“We encourage you to use the rel=”nofollow” attribute anywhere that users can add links by themselves, including within comments, trackbacks, and referrer lists. Comment areas receive the most attention, but securing every location where someone can add a link is the way to keep spammers at bay.”

(more…)