Google has published on the Search Off The Record podcast, which was a recording from brightonSEO session, where John Mueller of Google said that he believes that over time, links as a ranking factor will be not as important and not as big as a ranking factor as it is today.
Google has added a multipage set of new help documentation around e-commerce best practices for Google Search. The docs include how to build the best possible e-commerce site for your users and Google Search.