Do the links contained within article syndication carry the same weight as they once did? That is a tough one to answer due to the changing value of article syndication and who you are asking. For site owners who are looking for content to post on their sites so that their readers might get a chance to read some new content, then article syndication remains valuable. For search engines, article syndication is little more than duplicated content that quickly gets regulated to the Supplemental Results indexes.

From the perspective of the writer who syndicated their content the value is two fold.

1. They get to brand their product or site by putting information on similarly themed sites and in front of readers who are keenly interested in the topic.
2. The links are still crawled by the search engines regardless of which index they are listed and besides, with duplicated content, it is generally the site with the higher PR that gets credit for the content which means you are getting credited for those links from the higher value site.

The only real question on value here is how much link popularity is derived from links within the Supplemental Results index pages in Google, versus links from their regular indexes. The short answer is “Who Cares!” Seeing as your message is getting posted on other sites and regardless of whether or not Google wants to remain relevant, readers can still click through to your site if they like your message. Syndicate away!