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June 17, 2005

PageRank Decoder Offers Flash-Based Guestimates On Linking Impact

Want to understand how PageRank will build between pages you link? Only Google actually knows how that works. There's been so much tinkering and tampering with what they do since the original PageRank formula was published years ago that using that equation to understand what happens today is like teaching sciences with a textbook that's hundreds of years old.

Nevertheless, that's all PageRank Decoder has to work with -- the old formula. Spotted via Search Engine Roundtable, this Flash-based application lets you link between actual pages to guestimate (strong on the guess) how things might change. Further comments on the tool from Search Engine Roundtable and

For a nice, healthy and recent debate on how much we can really know about PageRank calculations, I recommend reading our Revisiting whether PR is lost when adding pages to a site thread on the Search Engine Watch Forums. For a reminder that it's anchor text rather than PageRank to worry about, see the How Important Is Page Rank? thread. Other factors come into play, as well, as What Factors Other Than PR Determine Google Rank? covers.

Posted by Danny Sullivan on June 17, 2005 8:57 AM