Do text link ads, like the ones from text-link-ads.com act as backlinks ? Surly they work as normal anchor text, but are search engines wise to this technique and just not count them ? 
do text ads count as backlinks?
links;backlinks;text;anchor
Sure it will act as back links ,even you can sometime see in google webmaster tool as back links but BEWARE . Google will punish you for excessive paid back links or link exchanges . this what google say about paid back links   Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results.so if you are looking for better Google ranking or Google's page Rank  better stick to normal and safe way to build genuine back links from high rated websites and from sites which have better page ranks .