Hi, I was reading google terms of use They have mentioned that it's not legal to query google for page rank using some software. Then how are websites doing that using scripts online?
Jeet, I do not know methods used but someone posted recently that their IP had been blocked by Google. Think only legal way to query Google is using API like Shawn does with keyword tracker.
You can't get PR from the API though so technically its illegal. If google was bothered about it then they would just disable the PR script from working.
In a way these PR scripts serve Google's purposes. Every time there is an update all of the SEO PR addicts start jumping all over these scripts trying to figure out what "went wrong" and then try and come up with all kinds of SEO theories to do better the next time around. In the end the PR addicts spend so much energy chasing "Google dances" that they don't really accomplish their real objective. Basically by Google tolerating these scripts, they are allowing the most aggressive SEOs to defeat themselves by reacting to every little change Google makes. If SEOs looked at "Google dances" and PR updates as interesting curiosities and focused on time tested practices, "Google dances" and PR updates would have very little impact on how well their sites do.
If google doesn't want people to query their servers and get the page rank, why are they leaving them publically available? It's like haveing a webpage and not allowing people to see it, well, saying that its illegal to see it.
This is an old red herring argument. With any publicly available service there are still going to be terms of service that dictate how a service can be used. One doesn't give up their rights to control how their services by simply making them available on the Internet.