No timothy PR has never been a factor in the SERPs you would have also noticed that many times you see a PR 5 site being on the top of a PR 7 site. Correct me if I am wrong!
PR is one factor for better SERP but not only.I mean if you have good PR then you have more chances to rank in comparison to others.
it dont matter 2 much now, but it used to be important like 4 years ago i dont agree that is has never been important, however now it is not important at all, a perfect example is type in computer as a search term for google. 1) Dell - PR 8 2) Apple - PR 10 3) DMOZ - PR7 4) Yahoo Dir - PR 8 5) Amazon - PR 0
Yepp, Some believe that google launched Pr to determine ranking of sites originally, but people found very easy ways to abuse it, so instead of fixing or making PR better, google guys chose to make it less important, however it ended up being not important at all... I believe that Pagerank is still being used in Google, but its not that pagerank what we see in the toolbar... The visual pagerank is nothing but a little green/white/grey graphical image just to make you happy or sad. The real pagerank, which is the outcome of your Site optimization and linking technique, is somewhere hidden in Google's massive Algo. And we are not being told about it, We are not able to see or jack this magical feature..
Just think if PR would have been a factor for SERPs then people would have been much considered about their PR than the rankings. Am I right? Please add to my repuatation if you liked my opinion. Cheers