Is a URL that is not a hyperlink (has no anchor: ) considered a link by Google?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Matt Hintze: Hi, everyone, I'm really enjoying the community here.  ;Anyway, my question is: Is a URL that is not a hyperlink (has no anchor: <a href=""></a>) considered a link by Google?  ; Thanks, this has bothered me for some time.
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  Matt Staton: No
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  Matt Hintze: Nice
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  Benoît Geffrotin: Sorry, +Matt Staton ; but Yes, Google crawls anything that looks like an url (with or without <a>). If you're asking is it transmitting page rank and imroving ranking...that's another question. Need to be tested (or find someone who did it). ;
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  Matt Staton: +Benoît Geffrotin can you show me where Google says they crawl it (i.e. follow it)?
  
  Of course they crawl it (see it) but I'd be surprised if they follow it - and even more shocked if they pass PR. In fact, I'd bet the farm that they don't pass PR. 
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  Benoît Geffrotin: Check your server logs ;) and on the PR, my intuition is the same as yours but i'm not betting. I'd rather see a test.
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  Matt Hintze:  ;+Matt Staton ;I totally see your point, but isn't the GoogleBot intuitive enough now to count these non-hyperlinks as endorsements in their algorithm for PageRank?  ;And, I don't get why they would have to say they crawled it; I would assume there's a lot in their algorithm that's proprietary information.  ; I think you're right +Benoît Geffrotin ;; it all comes down to testing.  ;I wonder if anyone has tested it before.  ;
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  Matt Staton: I think we'd need to define "link" before testing. It'd be an interesting test. 
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  Tim Quin: Interesting debate, but even if google does crawl them they would surely put the smack down on you quickly with a big penalty as this tactic would fall pretty squarely in the "black hat camp". I'm not an expert +Matt Hintze but I'd advise against going this route.
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  Matt Hintze: Hi +Tim Quin ; this isn't really a debate for me; It's just something I'm unsure about, and that's why I asked.  ;If I were testing this method, I wouldn't worry about a penalty, because I would just use a tester site. ;
  
  But, I wouldn't worry about this anyway.  ;Someone can put you in a "black hat camp" by using negative SEO, or your site can be a false positive.  ;You don't have complete control of inbound marketing, and Google knows this.
  
  Having a website that serves the niche community with useful content bypasses all that black hat stuff.  ;At least, that's what I've seen to work in internet marketing. ;
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  Jim Munro: I think +Dan Petrovic ;has tested this. From my hazy memory, googlebot does not follow them and of course only a link can pass pagerank.
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  Matt Hintze: Interesting. +Jim Munro ; I'll research his posts..  ;Thank you. ;
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  Dan Petrovic: It's a signal. It helps with URL discovery. No PageRank passed though.
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  Matt Hintze: Interesting.  ;So, it has some influence to maybe index a web page more quickly, like a ping to the search engines (I think that's what you mean by a signal and URL discovery)? Sounds like it has positive influence but not enough to really matter.
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  Dan Petrovic: It needs more testing. There is one video by Matt Cutts where he discusses the issue explaining that if they allowed that as a link-like signal they would be vulnerable to spam. He didn't answer that question straight though hinting at a possibility that non-URL references do something indeed.
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  Matt Hintze: Wow, thanks, +Dan Petrovic. Yeah, there are a lot of those URL's in spam comments,and Yahoo answers, so that makes sense.  ;
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  Joshua Cabe Johnson: Of course it's considered a link by Google. If it's a link, then it's a link. Look at this rss mash using the Firefox browser: ;http://hostmyrss.com/feed/leasing_and_renting_copiers
  
  You will notice that you can 'click through' to the source. It's pretty obvious these would be considered links. ;
  
  It may not carry as much weight in the algorithms as an a href does or for passing PR, but it is certainly a SEO approach that should not be overlooked. In some cases, these types of links hold more value if used and applied correctly.
  
  Using these types of links can be very effective for long term strategies, curation with authority content, and more. ;
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  Joshua Cabe Johnson: Oh wait, are we talking about ranking tactics here or black and white tech talk? :)
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  Matt Hintze: That's interesting: Would RSS URLs be considered links too? Is a <link></link> equivalent to a <a href></a>...probably off-topic though.
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  Adam Heaton: Pretty positive I saw something about this a while ago which said that Googlebot did follow URL's which weren't hyperlinked, but I could be wrong. Not sure why everyone categorically says no though, as if they are 100% sure... ;
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  Matt Hintze: +josh bachynski ;had a good point about this, that "as long as Google can follow it..." it is considered a link.  ;I would like to see some real testing behind it, but I don't think the Googlebot would have a problem validating something that's not anchored, at this point in their history.
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  Jim Munro: This is one of the few situations where there has been a clear and unequivocal question asked and answered of a Googler, Adam and Matt. +Dan Petrovic ;(and also +Rob Maas later, I think) followed this up with John Mueller. I think there will be a recording of it somewhere.
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  Matt Hintze: Awesome, can't wait.  ;Thanks, +Jim Munro ;
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  Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 01:25:59 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/is_a_url_that_is_not_a_hyperlink_has_no_anchor_considered_a_link_by_google
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  Matt Hintze: Thank you.
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  Jim Munro: I noticed that Alistair added a link on the dsq site that links to Barry Schwarz' article on this and the article links to Dan Petrovic's original article 12 months previously.
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  Dan Petrovic: Good news guys! I found the article/video: ;http://dejanseo.com.au/seo-experiment-with-non-link-references/
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  Matt Hintze: Thanks +Dan Petrovic ; I'll check it out, post-Christmas.
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  Matt Hintze: Thanks +Dan Petrovic.  ;Interesting results.  ;I think that answers my question.  ;If it was a ranking factor, you would think that example.com would be ranking number one for "example".  ;But, then again, context might be the key. ;