Even though Google has repeatedly told everyone that toolbar page rank isnt all that important, SEOs and webmasters just could not let go off it and we cant really blame them since a good PR (3 and above) means more popularity and a better chance of getting higher price for ad space on their sites.

So what made Google update the PR toolbar in little more than a month " June27, July 18 and now Aug 4? Maybe it was the bug that hit Google after its June update. Also it must be noted that Google had said that they will be updating the PR toolbar a few times in a year so perhaps this was one of those few times. Though it is not known what Google is basing this update on, it surely indicates that Google is looking at new ranking factors to assign page ranks to websites.

This update has received mixed responses from webmasters worldwide " most are happy about the update as they have gained on the PageRank toolbar, but some are feeling left out as they did not work enough on their backlinks to gain the most out this update.

It seems that the recent updates of the PR toolbar has become a little bit more of an event for Google " rather than a non-event, as Matt Cutts called it last year. So update or no update, gain or loss in PR " whatever it is, make sure you keep working on those backlinks so that you make the most of Googles next surprise PageRank update.