DOES GOOGLE STILL UPDATE BACKLINKS? OR DO THEY JUST SHUFFLE THEM?

Lenn... I'm as perplexed as you are. Our main site had 44,138 unique links from other sites in May. This is an exact number based on our server logs. If I use Website Grader, it shows our Google inbound links as 33, that's about 44,105 shy of being accurate. ****

Sure Jeff 
Same here.  Some time ago, most of the backlinks showing on Google were fairly good quality links, 3/4/5 etc.  But, lately, a lot of them are 2,3, etc.
Not that it matters, Google has it's own criteria.  I'm just trying to figure a few things out.  My post was primarily pointed toward the fact that I haven't seen updates to Google backlinks since January and when I don't see movement for long periods of time from Google, I get nervous  I've never lost ground in any of their volcanic updates,
and I DO have back up plans.  I just kind of like to know what's going on.

Lenn,  I really don't know how you are going to ever know how much value Google is putting on blog backlinks vs. other links.  I take it that you are maybe assuming that the backlinks that Google shows on their toolbar maybe have more weight than the backlinks that they don't show.  I wonder if anyone has any information on whether that is a good assumption. 
Tim.  We will never know a lot.  That doesn't stop me from WANTING TO KNOW.

Hi Lenn, great question and thanks for bringing the awareness ,it good to know that Jeff Turner has checked into it to analyse the data to make sure our customers are benefiting from it.
Paul.  Stay tuned Paul.  I'll post anything I find.

How di you get your PR back up from 4 to 5.
Michael.  It was just a matter of going back to basics until I had it right.

Lenn - I would be very interested in learning more about this as well - glad to know real "techies" like Jeff Turner are stumped too - I'll patiently wait to learn more - hope more weigh in here...  
Thanks Cyndee.  So far, no one has any answers.  We'll wait and see.

My backlinks went down considerably in google as well. They are much much higher on other search engines.
I haven't analyzed it - because it'll drive me crazy - but I have noticed it as well.
It's quite considerable, but my page rankings are UP for many of my keywords - go figure. 

Susan:
 I'm not sure what you mean by "page rankings are up for many of my keywords".  Do you mean that the SERP is better for some keywords???

Lenn,
I see what you mean. The # of links on the tool-bar hasn't changed but the links it shows are different and most of them are internal and not very good ones either. 

Greg:
THERE YOU DO.  Now you see why I'm curious.  Thanks for looking Greg.

Yeah, like Mitchell mentioned to get a more accurate estimate of your backlinks you need to check in Webmaster Tools. You will need to verify your site but once you do you can access the links tab and you will see a better representation of your actual backlinks. Now, according to Matt Cutts at Google while this does show more of your actual links it does not necessarily show all of them AND they will also show links that are no-followed or otherwise passing no value to your site.
 - Mark.  I use the Webmaster Tools on most of my sites.  That doesn't answer my question.

Google is notorious for not publishing their full list of backlinks for your site, although I'm confident that they are just as good as at cataloging them as Yahoo or MSN.  Yahoo is the only one these days that claims to list all of your backlinks, and MSN doesn't even report them anymore...

Google is weird about that.  I will have a high quality PR7 backlink from an .edu domain, but google chooses to publish the crappy PR0 backlink.  I don't get it.   I know for certain that they know it's there...

Same here Justin.  But, it's the trend of displaying more blog backlinks rather than high quality site backlinks that I find curious.

Parked.  Hoping to learn something about how backlinks work here because I can't figure out where the heck all of mine are either.  
Laurie.  I don't really care about where they are.  I only care that Google is shuffling them but not changing the count reported. 
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Go here for Webmaster Tools. It gives you a ton of quality information about how Google.
 Mark.  I do use Webmaster Tools and have for about 2 years or more.  It's wonderful for proofing structure, html, links, etc.  But, doesn't answer my question.

I don't pretend to understand all this stuff 100%.  All I know is my Rain blog and my KW site show up in the first two pages of my preferred searches in google.  My BBQCapital blog and my Point2 website show up in the first two pages of my preferred searches in Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.
Why such a difference?
 Chris.  I pay absolutely no attention to Ask, MSN or Yahoo.  Together they have about 20% of the web traffic.  I'm optomized for Google. 

Lenn,
Yeah that's what I meant. My site is ranking higher in SERPs although Google is not showing the backlinks. Is there thought to predict that they are going to do away or lessen the value of these links?
Susan.  Hard to say Susan since "authority" or "popularity", as measured by incoming links, has been the foundation of Google PR since 1998.
It was a blessing (good content encouraged incoming links) and a curse (spawned link farms).  So, what started out as a measurement of popularity
developed into a Frankenstein, "link to me and I'll link to you", with no need for valuable content.  Just link, link, link.  People got downright nasty to me when
I wouldn't link my PR5 site to their PR0 site.  Go figure. 

I started creating my tag into a link when commenting on posts. (SEE BELOW)
Does anyone know if this will hurt rankings?

TROY.  Most folks don't appreciate it.  It amounts to using their blog to advertise YOUR services.  I got smacked down
in my first week on ActiveRain for using a signature block in comments to other's articles that included a link to Homefinders.com.  I believe the
concensus is to use your own blogs to create links to yourself and not hijack someone else's blog for your advertising.  Links are passive advertising. 

You get a link back to your blog when you publish your comment.  You get another one when your comment is acknowledged.  Too many links to yourself in a short comment is spamming.

Good post. Something to think about. 

Bob and Carolin.   We all need to keep thinking, and reading and learning.  Thanks for commenting.

Thanks for commenting gentlemen.  Yes, you are correct, Google will never show enough for the Black Hat folks to game it any more than the already to.

Thanks Gary. 

I can remember when about the only site one would see for a backlink would be a high ranking site.  That doesn't appear to be the case any longer because the blog backlinks usually have no PR.  My AR Profile does have a PR, but most of my Localisms don't.  In fact, I don't know that any of them have a PR.

Guess I'll check that too.

Doug.  You web site is just the type that inspired this post. You are showing 7 backlinks in Google, five of which are Active Rain links.  We don't know what value Google is placing on these Blog banklinks.  I'm getting more and more if the backlinks showing from Active Rain and I'm wondering about the future. 

Abraham.  I can't answer your question.  Contact the AR guys.