Google Toolbar can create a whole new concept of PR

Spin-off from another thread

[Clark]

Initially I was going to respond to this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

Then realized it's a whole new topic so here it is.

The toolbar is a wonderful way to get sites in the index whether it currently does or doesn't.

It can give Google a whole new meaning for PR in a whole new way.

If there are a thousand toolbar visitors to a url that vote means more than a link. People are really visiting that page. Much harder to fake. And popularity is clear as day.

Fresh pages? You want fresh? How much fresher can you get than finding pages through the toolbar?

If this isn't the case today, it should be.

[DaveN]

Much harder to fake

not really a good programme and a few accounts om AOL, tiscali, etc

would soon be king.

Dave

[Clark]

Not saying you can't emulate or fake the toolbar, just that it would be harder than PR. The skills in creating tons of new websites for fake PR is much easier than doing packet capture and reverse engineering the toolbar..don't you think?

[keeper]

I agree Clark.

I was thinking this my self when I realised that Google has a very nice opt-in panel to gauge popularity.

I think unique visitors from a specific toolbar id would be the main metric, and lets say if you did visit a particular site from the same toolbar over and over, your toolbar id is trashed for that site for being unrepresentative of normal usage.

Unless of course you uninstall your toolbar and re-install to get a new toolbar id. But seriously, doing that too often would be a) easily identified by Google and b) freakin' mindnumbing.

Google could be sitting on Alexa type data to support their crumbling PageRank metric.

Sheesh, if Alexa's data can be taken seriously then can't the same methodology be considered as the 101st Google algo?

There are a lot of applications for that data in developing regionally profiled results as well.

[Perplexed]

All of which raises the question about the "voting" buttons again....

[Clark]

Yeah. Those voting buttons are said to do nothing, but it may give a clue about what G is thinking :)

[keeper]

Because it takes human interaction, I dont think much weight is given to them. People who click the voting buttons are not a very good sample to base data on (IMHO ;)

However, it may have been the first foray into sampling internet usage as a metric to base popularity. The PR bar could record a vote for every page you visit whether you interacted with the toolbar or not.

A much better sample.

[Clark]

That's what I meant. Well said.