Thanks Anthony. I have read Adam's article and after further research this was the direction I was leaning in. You have definitely helped me choose a direction.

I run an ecommerce site that paginates product pages within Categories/Sub-Categories. Currently, products are not displayed in multiple categories but this will most likely happen as time goes on (in Clearance and Manufacturer Categories). I am unclear as to the proper implementation of Canonical tags and Rel=Next & Rel=Prev tags on paginated pages. I do not have a View All page to use as the Canonical URL so that is not an option.

I want to avoid duplicate content issues down the road when products are displayed in multiple categories of the site and have Search Engines index paginated pages. My question is, should I use the Rel=Next & Rel=Prev tags on paginated pages as well as using Page One as the Canonical URL?

Also, should I implement the Canonical tag on pages that are not yet paginated (only one page)?

Thanks for the Amazon comment Chris :). I understand the multitude of variables when asking this question but after looking at a group of sites with similar backlink profiles, site architecture, etc. and all use duplicate product descriptions I am taken aback that they are not penalized. Even looking at smaller sites that are not properly constructed or optimized use duplicate product descriptions and still drive traffic/rank. Then I read all about rewriting product descriptions from SEOMoz and others (this information gels with what I know to be true) but then see sites still rank with this thin/dupe content.

Any thoughts?

I know that creating original product descriptions is best practices. What I don't understand is how other sites are able to generate significant traffic while still using duplicate product descriptions on all product pages. How are they not being penalized by Google?