Note when Google first unveiled their 'rel=nofollow' invention in 2005, they were very careful to say only that it meant 'no weighting', but not necessarily 'no discovery via this reference'. The attempt to formalize the attribute maintained that same distinction. [1]
The Google manager blogging about it two years later (five years ago) was probably correct about then-current practice, but I wouldn't count on that as an enduring commitment that Google had never and would never follow such links.
The Google manager blogging about it two years later (five years ago) was probably correct about then-current practice, but I wouldn't count on that as an enduring commitment that Google had never and would never follow such links.
[1] http://microformats.org/wiki/rel-nofollow