Google has Confirmed that it is Removing it’s Toolbar PageRank

Unlike the spontaneous and dynamic Toolbar PageRank, which was offered until now, Google has decided to change and update them every few months. The exact new assessment parameters are not clear yet. The Google PageRank is now showing as being “not available”. Either this or it will be displayed shortly. The conclusion is that they are removing the publicly viewable Google PageRank from display.

It may be active for some time until the entire removal roll out is complete. Prominent news channels aired the news using screenshots taken earlier to confirm the news. In fact, the bar has turned grey as if to indicate that it is no longer clickable. When you hover your cursor above it, it clearly shows in a pop-up that “No PageRank information available”.

However for a better perspective you should consider another computer which continues to show PageRank. In case in your PC it is still viewable then it is pertinent that you note that it would soon (in a few weeks) be made unavailable. Eventually, it would not show any data. This must not be confused with Google not calculating PageRank or that they would not be using the strategy further. Internally for its own purpose Google will continue to use PageRank. The algorithm too will work as usual and there would be no changes there. It is only the toolbar view of the PageRank, which would now onwards be hidden from view.

To explain this and analogy to votes can be sighted as an example. Google treats its links as votes. They consider some votes as more important than other votes. PageRank is a system of tallying link votes and classifying the pages, which are most important. These are based on the tally. The scores are used with other parameters to determine if your page will rank fairly in a search. A relevant search and ranking is the end goal. PageRank is highly reliant on a sui generis nature of the web. They use its vast linking structure for an indicator of the individual page value. Google interprets a link from a page A to page B as a vote. Thus the votes are constantly coming in, taken and processed. They look at a considerable shift in the volume of votes and the specific links, which a page receives.

Overall, it seems that there are no changes other than Google using the PageRank service internally and making it un-available for the public. There will be tweaks here and there with the removal of the public PageRank service. Speaking from the SEO perspective it would be harder to interpret the value of the sites which are using the legacy PageRank feature. How this major move has been viewed by individuals, corporations and online communities in general, is only a matter of time. Some strategies may have to be changed but overall, it could have an impact on some existing methods, which require the PageRank data. These may include those of digital marketing in general too.

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