Toolbar PR - why so different for pages at the same level?

[Industry]

I realize that the Page Rank shown in the toolbar is at best to be used as a "guide" (and understand some say it should just be ignored).

My question though, is why does the PR change so dramtically for certain pages that are on the same level of the site? In other words, a site may have 5 main naivigation pages off the home page, the home page is a PR4, and yet one click away from the home page and you have a 0. And another page, one click away from the home page is a PR3? Why such a major drop? Is it just that the toolbar is now like what they show for links...only a sampling?

I see this even when I know the interior pages do not have significant links directly to that page? Any insight is appreciated.

[tedster]

Toolbar PageRank is a mystery known only to Google. I've also seen dramatic anomalies like you describe an only once in a while can I see a reason - and that is often backlinks and you dain you've checked that and they're no there in your case.

Google does sometimes change Toolbar PR if they suspect a website is selling links that pass PR on that page.

[Industry]

So would you make an assumption that the PR of the home page is at least in the "ballpark" and the balance of the pages could be all over the map regardless of how Google actually sets the PR of that Page?

And another question I have been pondering...why do they even show PR is they do not want links sold or bartered on the basis of PR. Without the toolbar it would'nt it be almost impossible?

[dvduval]

Without pagerank, links would be sold based on things like Alexa and Compete rankings, backlinks, traffic reports and subscription rate. It would sometimes take google out of the picture when deciding on where to spend advertising dollars. It is also a unique and patented item that google possesses that the other search engines like Bing do not.

My biggest issue is google seems to have given up on dealing seriously with reports about sites that are manipulating pagerank. I assume they want to automate everything, and look for ways to do that.