Calum - 1:47 pm on Mar 14, 2004 (gmt 0)

The end-game is to get as high up the SERPS as possible. An (seemingly) objective way to judge whether a site (lets call it site X) linking to you will help in getting you higher up the SERP's was to look at it's PR. So if PR is becoming extinct, how else do you judge the value of a link into your site?

One way is to invest a little more time in checking how many sites link into site X.
Here's a great site for doing just that:
[marketleap.com...]

So this gives us the quantity, but says little to nothing about the quality of links from this site. I've read on WebmasterWorld that Google will only show a backlink with PR's of 3 or higher (any confirmations or refutations?)
If this is true, then you want sites showing a high amount of links through G (rather than other SE's), as that indicates site X has quality links.

An easy rule of thumb is to get links from educational and governmental institutions. G's definition of an 'authority' site includes these.

I'd love to hear your experiences and authority readings (no speculation please).
Rgds, Calum