Well, one of my websites was actually set-up AFTER the last PR update, which was almost three months ago, and so there is no way any of its pages have been ranked. Here's a list of Google PR updates (I am not talking about the toolbar and I don't care much about what the toolbar says in any case): http://www.seocompany.ca/pagerank/page-rank-update-list.html
You're not really trying to tell me that no pages created after the last toolbar PR update have been ranked in the Google index, are you? That simply isn't correct - hell, blog entries and forum entries within the past few DAYS are ranked in Google. Okay... and this is "evidence" of what? Once again -- the PR in the Google Directory has been updated fairly recently; the toolbar graph has not. If anything, it seems to be your reference supports my point. And again -- page ranking and PageRank are two very different animals.
How do we know that Google is NOT updating PR on a montly basis like usual. But just not reporting it to the masses?
For a somewhat more credible comment on PR vs. SERPs, this is from Jill Whalen's Highrankings.com newsletter, a response to a question from a member about PR having dropped to zero (which happened to several sites in the June 2004 adjustment) on the home page despite continuing good ranking and traffic:
That also includes backlink updates as well. It is missing one from July 4th which was not noticed by too many people, but it did occur. Two things happened during the July 4th and July 16th backlink updates ... there were two Googlebar software updates that occured one week after both events. Coincidence? Don't know. When the Googlebar updates stopped, this coinicided with one other event that caused a big stir throughout a lot of forums -- the checksum crack code for the PR datacenter that was released into the public domain. Shortly after that, all sorts of PR tools flooded the net-waves. Coincidence? Don't know. Now there is another Googlebar update. It will take time to propogate thru all the user's browsers. At this point in time, the checksum crack is working on the older versions of the toolbar. When this is completed, then the old crack will be non-functional. Will we finally see a PR Update? Don't know. Here is the thing. PR updates occur on a regular basis. The backlink updates precede that update usually. The fact that there has been numerous and more frequent backlink updates is also synonymous with frequent PR updates. Are they hiding those updates? Sure thing. It is surely evident that they are. One of the reasons (my gut talking) is that is nullifies all of these third-party tools in essence. Once you see the PR not changing, then you stop checking. They will change the checksum and the will cut of the novice hacks on all these PR glory-grabber sites that want to capitalize on it. The well established tools (such as Shawn's here) will shortly be back in business and leave them in the dust again, which is where they should be IMO. In the meantime, the Googlebar is broken. Plain and simple. The numerous PR0 Homepage accountings should just be ignored until they fix it again.
The link posted by dfsweb is just a list of PR updates. That was for information purposes only, to those who don't know it already. Articles are entirely a different matter. Specially if they are self-pronouncing and sweeping. Thanks.
minstrel: Jill is not known to be the most credible person in SEO, I could give you some of her crazy quotes but there have been enough articles written on her and her strange ideas. Also the PR in the Google Directory has a different scale (scale of 7 5/35, 11/29, 22/18, 27/13, 32/8, 38/2) than the toolbar (1 -10), so yes even before the last directory update it was different.
dfsweb: The PR is updated regularly just the toolbar has not been updated. When the toolbar is updated all that happens is that you know the PR value that you have had all along. Some say that PR is updated on the fly others after backlink updates it is updated.
Dodger: I looked high and low for any forum suport for a July 4th backlink update and could find it. Do you have any URL's on that one?
How often does Google update the Page Rank and list of backlinks. I noticed (here and other places) that it seems to updated periodically everwhere, and not as the links are found. If there is a batch process, has anyone timed the frequency?
Page Rank Update List Rob: The toolbar update used to be on the average about once a month and usally they did the BLs at the same time or a bit before. Currently it has been 86 days since we have seen a toolbar update, but we had a Google Directory update back in Aug 10th. Some say PR is updated all the time on the fly and others say right after Backlink updates. We have had 4 backlink updates since the last June 22/2004 toolbar update (perhaps 5 if July 4th was a BL update). You can see the history of PR updates for the last 4 years in my Page Rank Update List .
I don't think it's quite possible to update the PR of millions and millions of pages "on the fly", especially since each PR update consists of several iterations .... each iteration requiring the "correct PR" of the pages linking to that page. If you have a look at any web page explaining how PR is calculated, you will understand this. Why else do you think Google has several datacenters instead of just one??
For load balancing of web searches (routing users to the closest physical data center). Data centers aren't used as clusters to calculate PageRank.
Please do not use the kind of titles again, I'm excited every time I see it, but never saw a real update.
You peoples are too hung up on the display of PR in the toolbar. We have a PR of 0, and I can give several keywords where our site is in the top ten. How is that possible? PR is updated much more often than what is displayed in the toolbar. Quit wasting time by posting crap like "When is the new update?" and "I think the new update will be in a week". Spend more time getting quality backlinks. Improve your onpage content for better SERP's. That little green bar being displayed really doesn't mean crap. That's MHO.
Good record keeping BobMutch, on our DC TB update was June 23. However this does not mean no PR update since. New site, PR0 on toolbar, one backlink from PR5, is No.1 in G for a competitive two word search term. On PR0 ? No way Jose !
Really? And who IS "a credible person in SEO"? The same person(s) who are the source of those articles you mention? You? Your guru? I don't think so... What the heck are you talking about?
I agree to a point. But again, as I said earlier, don't confuse the PR of a page, updated or not, with whether the page ranks #1 or #500 in the SERPs.