What is the role of nofollow in SEO backlinking?

[limens]

I'm checking out my competition on opensiteexplorer, who does quite well for the main keyword. I see that 40% - 60% of the backlinks are ref="nofollow"

is there any benefit to such links?

if i hire a linkbuilder, should I ever accept nofollow links?

can u explain please

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update 1/18/12

i apologize, i mistyped. i was referring to ref="nofollow"

[TampaSEO]

To the best of my understanding, adding the rel="noreferrer" attribute to an <a>tag (i.e. attaching it to a link) just means that you don't want the user's referrer information (e.g. what browser, operating system, etc. he/she is using) to get passed along. </a>

<a>My guess is that it has more to do with privacy, rather than SEO. From a search marketing standpoint, I wouldn't spend too much time thinking about it, if at all.</a>