11 replies to this topic

[SelfMade]

Why did google decide this should be included in the common browser?

The general notion is that it serves no purpose?

Why did G come up with this?

I mean.... does anyone have any viewpoints??

[OldWelshGuy]

Marketing gimmick. Google were very naive in the begenning, and they created a monster in the SGB (silly green bar)

[Mhoram]

People on this forum may know it serves no purpose, but I wouldn't say that's the "general notion." I think most webmasters or site owners assume it does correlate directly with rankings, which is why even here there are "My PR dropped to 2, what do I do?" posts regularly. I know site owners who watch it obsessively, comparing their Toolbar PR to their competitors' Toolbar PR, and crying or cheering over every change--even after I've told them it's worthless.

So they include it because people believe it means something, so it gets them to use the toolbar, which encourages them to use Google's services and supplies Google with lots of useful data.

[SelfMade]

Marketing gimmick. Google were very naive in the begenning, and they created a monster in the SGB (silly green bar)

OldWelshGuy...thought as much!

They can deceive us but we can't deceive them!

POT...KETTLE...BLACK!

Yeah, Interesting points mhoram.

[Randy]

See if you can follow this totally made up but quite possibly true logic Kaz.

People were clamoring to figure out what this mysterious PageRank thing was all about, and how Google used it.

Google of course wasn't about to let the cat out of the bag since it was the secret sauce of their search engine algo, but around this same time they were creating this little browser toolbar application that would allow people to easily connect to Google.com (this is prior to the search functions being built right into browsers as is the norm today.) Additionally Google already had the concept of Personalization of Search on their radar screen, and getting people to install a piece of their software was the easiest way for the to track user movement to kick off Personalization.

So the solution to all of those disconnected wishes was for Google to release their little toolbar app and put a PageRank tool in it even though the tool had no correlation to the real PageRank algorithm. By including the PageRank widget in their Toolbar and making it so that in order to get the PageRank data a person had to agree to let Google track their movement around the web Google got exactly what they wanted. A lot of people to downloaded and installed the toolbar, happily letting Google track their movement because they falsely perceived value because of the new search-from-the-browser capability and the little green bar.

Meaning Google got a huge advantage of being able to collect a lot of personalization data from a lot of people, data that nobody else at the time had the ability to access. And they didn't really care, nor do they care now, if people believe the Toolbar PageRank widget provides any useful, actionable data.

[SelfMade]

See if you can follow this totally made up but quite possibly true logic Kaz.

Yeah I follow it Randy,

BUT, if google were to charge people for this "covert" functionality( i.e if physical money was involved) they would and damn near should, have litigation up their rear end for near fraudulent deception in my opinion!

Will i get sued for saying that??

[SelfMade]

After consideration Kaz007 retracts that last statement completely on the grounds of "juvenile ignorance".

Just in case.

[Randy]

Well, if they were going to sue someone for saying Toolbar PageRank is not only totally useless but also gives faulty impression because of its name being the same as Real PageRank, I'd have probably been sued years ago. Heck, 99.9% of the people around here would have been sued, because we've all been saying Toolbar PR isn't an indicator of anything remotely useful for many, many years.

Technically speaking Toolbar PageRank does have a very, very (very, very) loose connection to the Real PageRank. However the differences are large enough to cause a huge disconnect. The main differences begin with the fact that Real PR is updated continuously and its effect is seen in the SERPs on a daily basis while Toolbar PR is only updated every 3-4 months and its updates have nothing whatsoever to do with SERP rankings. And probably end with the fact that Toolbar PR is a linear measurement, while Real PR values are more akin to a floating point scale.

They're just not the same thing, though the name certainly seems to convince people they are. And frankly they're not closely enough related to be a dependable measurement of anything.

[SelfMade]

Toolbar PR is a linear measurement, while Real PR values are more akin to a floating point scale.

Neat observation if I might say Randy!

When I first read what you wrote I immediately thought of that famous quote:

"when the tide goes out, you see who has been swimming naked"

And that just about sums up real PR.

You get those that are up there due to new site boost from G...take that boost away and they are gone into oblivion...where as, those who have bothered to SEO their site in a professional manner are still there..fully clothed and prepared!

[Jill]

When you hear people from Google talking about PageRank, they definitely don't mean toolbar PR. They forget it even exists I think.

I remember when we heard Dan Crow from Google at a SEMNE event a few years ago. He was talking lots about PageRank and its importance. Finally I (or it may have been someone else) asked if he did or did not mean toolbar PR and he just laughed...and said something like, "oh no, that's just for entertainment purposes."

[Shamon]

Finally I (or it may have been someone else) asked if he did or did not mean toolbar PR and he just laughed...and said something like, "oh no, that's just for entertainment purposes."

Dan Crow...What a jerk!

Anyway, on a more practical note: I observe the public toolbar of several "industry related" sites. In the case of some of the higher ones, I contact the owners, meet for coffee, talk, invite to parties, etc. Basically, having a high public PR implies a webmaster is SEO aware. I made new SEO concious friends because of the public bar. Now we bounce ideas off each other, celebrate acheivements, share experiences, etc. As a matter of fact, my joining this forum was because I recognized a post from one such friend.

There you have it, pagerank serves a purpose...just not the one that most people seem to think.

[Jill]

Basically, having a high public PR implies a webmaster is SEO aware.

I wouldn't say that at all.

It simply means that they have a site worth linking to. Before we had the toolbar, we all had links just the same.