A very interesting thread has been going on at the WebmasterWorld. A lot of webmasters are discussing on the issue that Google might distinguish trust and authority notions!
The discussion resolves in the following manner:
Let us have a look as to what the Search Engine Journal has to elaborate on the whole issue:
Trust: Trust is based on “A hand picked "seed list" of trusted domains."
It protects you from "Google-bowling" campaign against your domain.
It is a Query-independent factor and is attributed to Domain.
Authority on the other hand, is an Overall quantity and quality of inbound external links.
Role in Algorithm: Matters for rankings.
It is a Query- and topic-dependent factor and is attributed to a page.
According to Tedster, WebmasterWorld Category Administrator:
Here's an example of confusing trust with authority. It's been common to read statements such as "this site has Google Sitelinks, so it's a trusted authority." I hope my efforts here shows that no such thing is true.
Sitelinks are not at all a sign of trust, and a relationship to "authority" is possible, but it's also weak.
Sitelinks are a navigational aid that Google assigns to a domain for some queries if the site's architecture is clear enough for them to do so. If sitelinks are displayed for a generic query, and not just a domain name query, then something about authority has come into play – but still, that's not trust.
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Navneet Kaushal, CEO PageTraffic is a trusted authority in the search engine marketing industry. He is a featured author at Web Pro News, Search Newz, Promotionworld, Website Notes, DevWebPro, SEO Article and Web Help Now among many others.
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Brilliant post. So often a big trustworthy business comes onto the Internet later then it should and does not have an SEO company to show them the way. They just do what they do and put that online without any thought. So just because Google does not consider them an Authority and yet the people in that country trust them.