Pagerank queries - the <rk> parameter

What do such figures as Rank_1:1:6 Rank_1:1:5 mean?

[selomelo]

We already know that toolbar PR is in fact an historical figure. When you query google for current PR, you get some mysterious figures such as:

Rank_1:1:6 Rank_1:1:5 Rank_1:1:4 Rank_1:1:4 Rank_1:1:5 Rank_1:1:6 Rank_1:1:5 Rank_1:1:0 Rank_1:1:1 Rank_1:1:5 Rank_1:1:2 Rank_1:1:3 Rank_1:1:0 Rank_1:1:0 Rank_1:1:3

These figures are for a site that has a current toolbar of PR4.

I searched the web for an explanation, but failed to get a good one.

Is there any idea as to what all these magical numbers mean?

[DerekH]

As far as I can see, this needs some qualification. It is true for "old" sites. But quite the opposite holds true for "new" sites, that is to say, RK values for new sites are always lower in BD DCs, as I pointed out in the other thread on pr update.

What always amazes me about this particular forum is that when you leave it alone for a few days, a whole new nomeclature seems to spring up. And then when you go back and check that nomenclature out, you find that it's nothing to do with Google and everything to do with hypothesis.
I quite regret being away for a few days, but it's quite odd to come back, check out Google and then come here to see that suddenly RK<normal on BD DCs; it's a whole new language!
So what are we talking about?
DerekH

[Jim Westergren]

I found it!

A definition problem!

Let's look at the definition of <rk> from Google.

From their official "Google XML Reference":

"Provides a general rating of the relevance of the search result"

Where does this come from? Seem total wacko, and yes it is.

It comes from the "confidiential" document I wrote about above called: "Google's Search Results Protocols"

And there it says:

Definition of RK:
"Google's rating of how good a single search result is"

But check this:

In that same document it defines what is a "single search result".

And it says:

"R - A single search result - Contains a U; an optional T; an RK; any number of F's; an optional S; and a HAS"

That is the XML!

Every SERP listing in the XML starts with an <R>.

The old definition of R as per that same docuement is:

"A single search result"

The new definition is:

"Provides encapsulation for the details of an individual search result"

So the guy that wrote the new version of this document now called "Google XML Reference", earlier called "Google's Search Results Protocols" translated RK:

From:

"Google's rating of how good a single search result is"

To:

"Provides a general rating of the relevance of the search result"

Which is total wrong, the person didn't see there was a special definition for "single search result".

And this has caused headaches for SEOs ever since ...

A "single search result" is meant to be a listing in the SERP.

Which means that RK is:

"Google's rating of how good a listing in the SERP is"

Which is: PageRank!

[Jim Westergren]

RK<normal on BD DCs; it's a whole new language!

RK is the Live internal PR Google is using. BD DCs is BigDaddy Datacenters. We were discussing the differences of RK from BigDaddy and non-Bigdaddy datacenters which is very interesting as it can give more light on what BigDaddy really is.

[Nikke]

Hey Dayo,

You can't have missed Bigdaddy, Google's new index infrastructure (as Matt Cutts puts it). That's BD for you and since there is now three Data Centers showing BD results, those three are BD DCs...

Now. As for <RK>, you'll just have to read the thread from post 121 and onwards.

[300m]

I wanted to share something I have found out. Last week, I noticed that withink the xml there was a link from the site i checked that was listed in R N="2" L="2", but it was a non existant link. After doing a lot of research on it, I found that the previous owner from 1999 had created that particular subpage. I decided to create the page and see what would happen and what I found was that all of the BD datacenters removed that dead link from the xml; that was there last week and replaced it with another link that does not exist on the site. Interestingly enough the RK value is the same for R N="2" L="2". Also last week All DC's had me at the normal PR6, but this week I am split between a PR5 and a PR6.

I do not know if this means anything, but I wanted to share what I found.

[Oliver Henniges]

Whats puzzling me the last two days is the results you get inserting toolbarqueries.google.com instead of a specific Datacenter-IP. I also checked pinging to toolbarqueries.google.com some times: firstofall I got different result-IPs every few hours, secondly I got some redirected answers from toolbarqueries.1.google.com, but I lack the experience to interpret what this means.

Finally I most of the time received an RK-value of 5 querying the toolbarqueries, whereas TBPR constantly showed PR4 for my site. So if toolbarqueries.google.com is not the resource, where the heck does the toolbar get its value from? Has this been discussed in another thread before?

[Ellio]

This tool is much more interesting and informative:

[livepr.raketforskning.com...]

Sorry for the query string but it really is relevant to the thread as it seperates TBPR from Live PR.

[Dayo_UK]

The PR8 are the Big Daddy DCs.

Over 50% now by the looks of it.

[Dayo_UK]

>>>>4.We should also assume that the <RK> returned by non-BD DCs is the toolbar PR.

Huh - no I am not making that assumption.

Toolbar PR may have been <rk> values two weeks ago - but <rk> values on the non-bd dcs have moved on since the lastest/current toolbar data export.

>>>>Do the <RK> values depend on the type of query or not?

This question has already been answered to my satisfaction.

>>>>Is the <RK> returned by the BD DC's a live value, i.e. the ominous internal PR, or is just the toolbar PR?

Why seperate BD - the question should be is the <rk> value the ominous internal PR - there are two sets of <rk> values out there non-bd and bd - as Big Daddy has a different crawling structure then this makes sense.

I am not sure when/why you jumped to the conclusion that the <rk> values on the non-bd are the current toolbar PR - or am I misreading you?

So we have Toolbar PR. (Which could be a snapshot of <rk> values at a certain time)
Possible Live PR - eg <rk> values on normal DCs.
Possible Live PR - eg <rk> values on Big Daddy DCs.

To me this thread is perfectly understandable in the way it has developed.

[Oliver Henniges]

Apart from that firefox extension there is a simple test according to which DC is queried by the toolbar. I just opened my router's status protocoll and one single internet-website. With the toolbar installed on IE the router-protocoll showed four http-requests: One for the router-page, one for the website and two for the toolbar-queries on 64.233.183.104.

I tried to make some more tests but my son has just docked in and his ICQ is currently flooding the protocolls;)

I'd support Hanu's interpretation but would like to add another question:

On what basis does google distribute requests from the toolbar and/or queries to toolbarqueries.google.com to the different Datacenters? Does google decide whether a request comes from the toolbar itself (in contrast to a browser), and if yes: how?