Google PageRank no more ?

2007/09/05 |

The current Google PageRank update has been going much longer than expected. Supposedly started in July and expected to end mid-August latest, datacentres are still not updated, leading to speculation and debate on whether Google has done away with the PageRank system altogether.

Many seem to think so, citing the many flaws of PR used to decide a site’s worthiness. Among them:
• PR numbers are inacurate and out of date by 3 months.
• PR has generated an industry of buying and selling links to gain PR which misrepresents a site’s true quality.
• PR has been abused in ways that are not in the interest of webmasters.

A heated debate is going on over at WebmasterWorld with many webmasters criticizing Google for keeping PR as a branding and image tool rather than a useful metric. A forummer observed that “Google says they want to discourage link buying, but they have effectively created the industry by valuing links in their algorithm and by publishing the value of webpages through the toolbar PR. If Google wants to discourage the link industry, they should no longer publish PR.”

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