Link begging is the practice of identifying link prospects, usually through competitor backlink analysis, and then contacting each one of those sites and begging for a link.
Read more here:
No More Link Begging: 4 Engagement Methods for Content-Based Link Building
[Just as a reminder: everything below is my personal opinion. I haven't sent it to anyone else at Google for a review, etc.] Valleywag used a recent podcast I did as material for two points in Six Delusions of Google’s Arrogant Leaders
See the rest here:
Clarifying a couple points