Backlinks Vs Content - Is google overdoing it?

Backlinks for sure are a very good yardstick of your web popularity. It is akin to the way your real life popularity is measured by how many people know you in town. The key difference though is that backlinks can be faked. This small difference has proven to be a game spoiler.

Google's recent update Panda 4.0 tries to address this issue, and puts more weight on the content, than the backlinks.

Is this update going to prove suicidal for google, as I know some very bad websites are genuninely popular (that is - have genuine back links) because of the high quality service they provide.

Is google overdoing it? Your thoughts please.

I think G is bluffing. The web is to big ( getting bigger every second) and too complex for their algo to manage as they claim. For sure they are close monitoring some "money keywords" but the rest are in the wild.

I'm sure once it's out you will discover that its very much more complex than just content. Backlinks and original content works together. If you have any one of this without the other then you are going to suck in the SERP.

John1444, Laur.laurix
also, isn't it true that google does not always return the best providers...i mean when I search for "sports shoes in new york" - it lists down a whole lot of shoe shops..the top result is not necessarily the best shoe shop..

does panda 4.0 makes this one better? this would be a real good value addition..

google doing it's business well.

with right backlinks i can rank 1 static html page .

backlink is still the in thing now.