Can Google follow and index JavaScript?

Did Google Spill the Beans?

I might be a bit behind the curve on this but an associate recently pointed me to this Google video I somehow missed where MCs talks about how the Google spider is now following and indexing JavaScript links. He even seems to point out, like standard links, if you don’t want the search engines to follow, index, and “flow pagerank” through these links it is possible to nofollow a JavaScript link.

Of course, the big ad networks that use JavaScript to display their ads this is of little consequence since Google knows about and handles the these ads without a hitch (your not going to gain any authority from your Adbrite or Yahoo ads). But it got me thinking… what about the little guy who wants to get his links on formally untouchable web pages? Could simple JavaScript widgets and programs be developed that could easily put now valuable JavaScript links on any website, including student run .EDU sites, with very little effort that will allow the creator to get viral backlinks like never before?

I am about to do some testing to see how much JavaScript links from sites with decent pagerank will help a brand new standalone webpage with no HTML based Linkage. If I can get a keyword phrase to rank and eventually get pagerank on this page with nothing but JavaScript links, it will certainly be a game changer for those involved with text link building.

BTW: If you are interested in participating in my experiment and pointing a JavaScript link to this test website, let me know and I’ll get you the code to place on one of your webpages. There is nothing blackhat or personal gain involved here, after the test, the results will be published and the site taken down. At this time I can’t reveal the URL because I need to make sure no HTML links are pointed at it effectively ruining my experiment.

Edit: 5/23: So far 3 days and six JavaScript links to the test page and Google still has not found the page and cached it.