is it smart to use a No Follow tag on sponsor links ??

[Bill]

Well, with, a, oh damn, the expression is slipping my mind - ahhh, "canonicalization" I believe, supposedly the chances of a sponsor url appearing in the serps is now either gone or much reduced.

However, I haven't tested this. And I'm not really studying canonicalization's effects, I am just noting that there is a body of opinion that says that the glory days of getting ones own sponsor link listed as a high result are supposedly gone, because google uses canonicalization to replace that link with a direct link to the sponsors paysite.

So, canonicalization rewards the sponsor every time you put up a link _without_ a rel nofollow - in theory at least.

I personally haven't had a sponsor link get a good position in the serps for quite some time tho. Not that that is evidence of anything.