Seems like Google finally released the long expect and long waited for Page Rank Update. It is now time to uninstall the Google Tool Bar in my opinion. From what I am seeing how they have pushed down PR on many large websites (outside of the punishment of the past week) it is becoming a joke to even bother about PR. My network shows a 100% decrease in PR. Pretty much take any of my sites and subtract existing PR by 1. Some new websites have minor PR in the toolbar. One website / Domain I bought in May still does not have any which is a clear indicator that this specific domain carries a penalty for whatever reason. I had notified Google of change in ownership and change in website, but I guess whatever the previous owner had done to the site is still sticking to it. I might consider rolling the content to a new site and then let it sit there to see if the ban follows the content or stays with the domain. The main trend I am seeing is that Page Rank went down by “1” across the board. Large websites that had a PR6 are now a 5. PR 5 websites are now a PR 4.

But overall I have to say that this is a clear message from Google to anyone hunting for PR. Don’t manipulate PR or we will take the big stick and punish your website. However, it is also a clear move against any honest webmaster that your hard work does not matter at the Googleplex and that Google only follows their own agenda. Other than traffic you have no way to see how well your work is paying off. The public display of Page Rank is now obsolete as it does not reflect the real work and value a SEO or Webmaster has done. Time for a mind change.

I highly recommend either uninstalling the Google Toolbar or to turn off that specific feature. It does deliver data to Google they use “against you” so to speak. Don’t help them if they don’t help you. Now that public PR is not worth a dime anymore there is no benefit for any webmaster to have this feature turned on. Leaving PR public is a bad move by Google. By decreasing Page Rank by one across the board is just a joke and cheap excuse to still display the PR. Enough said – the Google Toolbar is now going to be uninstalled from all my computers. Anyone who can recommend a more “neutral” toolbar – please let me know. The main thing I am looking for is the auto-fill feature.