With all this confusion going around about Page rank, I really wonder why don't the Big G remove this PR system all together from the public eye. Everytime there is a PR update, I see there is a hue and cry about it and Matt Cutts or some senior of G will clarify about how G relies on '200 signals' and not on PR alone for SERPS. Though it might not affect rankings but it does affect status in front of a potential client or an advertiser. Not so "Matt Cutts savvy" clients still rely on PR to gauge the importance of a site. What do you people think about it?
Matt Cutts has indicated that there are many people that use PR that are not webmasters. Why? Maybe to gauge trust in the page. On Google's new toolbar, PR is not active by default. Maybe Google is going to gauge just how many people activate the PR button and determine its future from that...
>>Maybe Google is going to gauge just how many people activate the PR button and determine its future from that... I hope this comes out to be reality and they really think something about it.
Providing webmasters the PR of a page is useful for Google as well. Besides the publicity PR gets among webmasters, it also helps Google to maintain a relationship with webmasters.