Google has confirmed it is removing Toolbar PageRank

Google has confirmed with Search Engine Land that it is removing Toolbar PageRank. That means that if you are using a tool or a browser that shows you PageRank data from Google, within the next couple weeks it will begin not to show any data at all.

Google explained that the company still uses PageRank data internally within the ranking algorithm, but the external PageRank values shown in the Toolbar are going away completely.

For years and years, Google has stripped away PageRank from their Toolbars and browsers and hasn’t updated the PageRank score in it in years.

Learn more about Google PageRank here.

Postscript: Danny Sullivan has written a more detailed story on this change named RIP Google PageRank score: A retrospective on how it ruined the web.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.