Google Pagerank and "Class-C Addresses"

[Sebastian Wiesinger <nanog () ml karotte org>]

Hello Nanog,

I'm looking into a weird request which more and more customers have.
They want "different Class C addresses", by which they mean IPs in
different /24 subnets.

The apparent reason for this is that Google will rank links from
different /24 higher then links from the same /24. So it's a SEO
thingy.

I googled a bit and found pages after pages of FUD and such great
things as the "Class C Checker":  "This free Class C Checker tool
allows you to check if some sites are hosted on the same Class C IP
Range."

My question is: Is there any proof that Google does differentiate
between /24s, or even better is there any proof that this isn't the
case? I will not give a customer space from different address blocks
just because he read it in a SEO magazine.

Perhaps someone from Google itself can answer this question?

Also how do you handle such requests? I expect I'm not the only one
who gets them.

Regards,

Sebastian

-- 
New GPG Key: 0x93A0B9CE (F4F6 B1A3 866B 26E9 450A  9D82 58A2 D94A 93A0 B9CE)
Old GPG Key-ID: 0x76B79F20 (0x1B6034F476B79F20)
'Are you Death?' ... IT'S THE SCYTHE, ISN'T IT? PEOPLE ALWAYS NOTICE THE SCYTHE.
            -- Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant