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Is PageRank Finally Dead? It Seems To Be, At Least In The Google Toolbar

Barry Schwartz on August 30, 2013 at 9:05 am

Want to know what the PageRank of a page is? The ability to easily do this using the Google Toolbar has gotten harder over the years, with the latest blow being no update in values for the past six months.

The Google Toolbar is how non-tech-savvy people can discover how much Google trusts a page, as represented by its PageRank value. That’s why Google added a PageRank display to its toolbar years ago, to help consumers know this, as it explains in its help area.

But over the years, support for PageRank has dropped. Google never offered a Google Toolbar for Chrome or any add-on to show PageRank values. Google dropped the Google Toolbar for Firefox in June 2011.

Internet Explorer is the last browser to still have a PageRank display offered by Google, but the data that flows into that display hasn’t been updated for over six months.

When asked when the next update would come, Google had no comment.

Earlier this year, Google said that PageRank in the toolbar wouldn’t be going away:

Maybe it hasn’t technically, but in practice, Google’s failure to update the PageRank values might effectively be killing it, all the same.

For more on this, topic check out our Google PageRank Guide.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.