Look at this http://searchengineland.com/googles-norvig-pagerank-is-overhyped-37282 A senior guy from Google says it's time to change Pagerank... I say it's well over time.
Truth is PageRank is one of the best internet technology and very helpful, but with it's abuse and manipulation resulting to PR's bad image, many webmasters totally ignore and treat PR as crap. I think it's a good move for Google to rebuild PR's reputation and show how helpful really it is..
what google is going to do is make it so it factors in on so many different factors, not just backlinks. For exmaple, if people stay on your page long, thats a bonus. If people bookmark the page, another bonus. It'll be based on so many factors that it will be hard to do SEO.
What is good thing about what Norvig says is re-branding. Personally, I think -Google will not drop it all-together suddenly, but re-brand the trademark slowly that would make it where it is today - "one of 200+ factors" determining the importance of a page/site to Google. But with the craze people/webmasters have for PR - I don't think it would be easy for Google to do it (re-branding) unless it drops it altogether from all of its tools and most importantly algorithm.
PR is overrated. The toolbar PR we see today, it's not being updated on the fly, so what might look like a 2, could be a 4 and vice versa. I analyze a sites back links when determining the quality of a site. Good back links from good sources = quality to me.
As Pete says, PR is overrated. However, I use it when getting backlinks. I'm sure I could live without knowing what the pagerank is of a particular website, but it would make it harder to find out what a quality site is. We'd have to do research on backlinks, etc... to find out how juicy a website can be. I feel that the "nofollow" tag is what killed (or is killing) Pagerank.
As Pete says, PR is overrated. However, I use it when getting backlinks. I'm sure I could live without knowing what the pagerank is of a particular website, but it would make it harder to find out what a quality site is. We'd have to do research on backlinks, etc... to find out how juicy a website can be. I feel that the "nofollow" tag is what killed (or is killing) Pagerank.
You're misinterpreting his statement and the article. He's not saying that it's the end of Page Rank, he's saying, Yes, it is overhyped, and probably needs a new name. Read the article, and then read it again.
And what you understand when some senior official is saying overhyped. Personally I put my very personal thoughts in the title, which doesn't necessaraly mean the same is said by norvig. So and you should read my post first where i clearly say So don't accuse without understanding.
Its a algorithm they (Google) develop and maintains quite seriously. It also have a little role in SERP. I guess they won't throwing it out very easily.