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IMHO since last update there are two sorts of white bars.
The first one indicates a penaltym so this is the old version of the white bar we all know.
But know there is also a white bar when a site is not in the index yet. I think this very misleading for users, because many users know that a white bar is a penalty but very less users know that now not every white bar indicates a penalty.
IMHO this means a disadvantage for newer sites, which are not in the index. The user might think they have been penalized and and for example not buy something.
Another point is, that it is difficult for webmasters to differ if they have been penalized or not.
Eventually this white bar phenomenon must have a reason, so why would Google give not indexed sites a white bar?
In short in many cases Google for the moment cannot show the "Google importance" of a page - a state of continuous transitional ignorance? ;)
It used to be the case that a white toolbar was either a very low Pagerank (the lowest) or a penalty, with grey toolbar being unindexed. (the ultimate Google penalty would of course be a removal out of the index - hence grey as well).
The user might think they have been penalized and and for example not buy something.
I'd say 99,9% of users don't know what "penalised Pagerank" means.
About not buying because of low Pagerank:
To be fair, Google does state:
"Knowing a site's Pagerank can indicate if its what it appears to be"
(from the popup when downloading the advanced toolbar - bold is mine)
- Note that in this case they are referring to site as in: - "do not blindly focus on the Pagerank of an individual site's page, for deciding on a site's quality".
So Google is not saying the shown Pagerank of an individual page is absolute or correct or up-to-date in relation to the site's quality.
In a way if I start a restaurant today, it may take at least a year and a half before I get any form of (correct?) Michelin rating.
After I made the change, I could just barely see green on the PR bar. Even then, it was intermittent between white and slight green. This week, all I see is a white PR bar. Knowing that I had just made this change...and hoping I did not do something to penalize myself, how long will it take to see some consistent PR results?
Another most gut-wrenching issue for me is that my site was added into DMOZ in April along with a dozen others in my category. As of today, Google STILL refuses to acknowledge the new sites in its Directory. Three months later and Google still has not sychronized the directory with DMOZ.
-Paul
zeus
Very strange situation.
I've found it to at least be more consistent while using the same DC, as you might expect.
