Google Update, PageRank, Backlink Information

[Mel]

Many years can mean five years or fifty years so I am of the opinion that its a bit of a stretch to use that part of the statement as an indication that they are NOT referring to PageRank.

That said I think most people understand that PageRank was never a big portion of the ranking algo and that its place in the ranking algo has diminished in the last year, so IMO it could just as easily be PR as something else.

[deepsand]

Many years can mean five years or fifty years so I am of the opinion that its a bit of a stretch to use that part of the statement as an indication that they are NOT referring to PageRank.

Said phrase is not "many years" but "several years," which implies a term less than the totality of Google's existence.

That said I think most people understand that PageRank was never a big portion of the ranking algo and that its place in the ranking algo has diminished in the last year, so IMO it could just as easily be PR as something else.

There are many who will disagree with this, in all respects.

Consider that Google has, on an ongoing basis spanning more than a few years:

• Initiated "nofollow," in an effort to reduce the effect of spam links on PR;
• Tweaked the manner in which a page's PR is allocated amongst its links, so as to thwart PR sculpting;
• Continued to both hide actual PR, and obfuscate the timing of the updates to Toolbar PR;
• Publicly divulged that PR is used as a signal in determining re-crawl frequency; and,
• Aggressively fought link spam.

These are not the acts of one who sees PR as being of minor import.

[LD]

This thread has run it's course. Thread closed.