Google: Rel=prev/next Is Not An Indexing Signal Anymore

Google removed the documentation on "Indicating paginated content to Google" that talks about rel=next/prev, 404ing.

Also, the blog post about it from 2011 in bold reads at the top "Note: The information in this post is outdated. Rel=prev/next is not an indexing signal anymore."

See the screen shot below:

When SEO's asked John about the same this is what he tweeted:-

Let me know your thoughts in the comment below.