TheMadScientist - 2:18 am on Apr 4, 2010 (gmt 0)

I hope the above isn't still true.

It is, and it's why I keep saying the bleeping FUD has to bleeping stop.

Check out this discussion: Webmasters Who Discount My Site Because of PR [webmasterworld.com]

Here's a couple of quotes:

"Well, you're offering me a link off a pr2 page and my page is a pr 3 page. etc."

Later, someone states if a page is 'grey bar' which could easily be because G didn't 'push all the FUD', the page is new and 'the FUD has not been generated for the public to view yet' or 'the FUD is unavailable at this time' for some other reason on the day (or even at the time of day) they try to check the FudRank before they link they wouldn't even take a link from it, which means there's probably no way they'd even consider giving one to it... Absolutely skewing the links on the web IMO.

It's been noted here repeatedly pages at times go 'grey FUD' for one reason or another, which does not necessarily mean anything is wrong with the page, but could rather be an issue with the ToolBar FUD, the FUD Server, or the FUD Delivery System used by ToolBar FudRank alternative display methods, like FireFox 'FudRank' type plugins. The page retains it's actual rankings, and it's traffic, so it's not a big deal because everyone knows it could easily be a ToolBar FudRank glitch or the page is new and a quality topical page should get the link they were considering, right? Uh, not exactly...

Heck, I'd take a link on a grey barred page with no pr if it was themed and had good content. I wouldn't. Whilst the actual number of the Pagerank is not so much a concern to me, at least having a number is.

The short of it is: IMO As long as FudRank is displayed it will be reviewed by some (IMO probably many) people prior to linking and it will in some way influence the web, and the links that would otherwise naturally be placed. IMO this skews the web and the way it is linked together, and, again IMO, not for the better, because some webmasters, rather than linking to 'great new content not yet found by many and/or assigned a high enough level of FUD', will opt for 'not as good of content but way higher FudRank.'

Using the reasoning, 'Who would link to a 'Grey FUD' (or lower than FR3, even) page anyway? It must be a 'bad' (unimportant) page according to Google's info to not even display FUD in some way...' is a fairly easy way to do things, but IMO it doesn't help separate the wheat from the chaff, because the, 'If it's unimportant to G, then it's unimportant to me.', type reasoning doesn't help them find the great content and rank it accordingly a single bit. It simply reinforces the known and makes it tougher for the new quality content to move through the system.