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"Bloggers are buzzing this morning about Google's most recent updates to Page Rank, the system that determines how much weight your site gets in its index.  Many popular blogs have seen their rank (which is on a scale of 0-10) take dramatic hits, with some reportedly even falling from PR7 to PR4 (Andy Beard has a good list of those effected).  This is a very big deal; many of these sites depend on search traffic and the credibility a high page rank brings to keep their business of selling ads afloat, and a drop in score can significantly lower the flow of visitors.\nFor Google\u2019s part, the reason these sites are being slammed is because the company's policy tells web publishers to \u201Cavoid links to web spammers or \"bad neighborhoods\" on the web.\u201D   Do some of the effected blogs sell links to such sites?  Perhaps; we\u2019ll let these folks defend themselves and their practices.  But the real story is the hypocrisy of Google enforcing this policy on third-party publishers, when within their own engine they profit immensely by selling ads to spammers and so-called \u201Cbad neighborhoods.\u201D\nHere\u2019s an example of just how easy it is to find link spam in Google\u2019s sponsored listings.  First, do a search for \"low cost airfare,\" and then follow this path:\n1. Go to page 3 of results.  Under \u201CSponsored Links\u201D click the link for CheapAirfareWorld.com\n\n2. Arrive at CheapAirfareWorld.com.  Click \u201Clowest airfare.\u201D\n\n3. If the resulting page isn\u2019t a web spammer/bad neighborhood, I don\u2019t know what is.  The page is nothing but sponsored links.\n\nThe truth of the matter is that Google makes a good deal of money by allowing spammers to buy AdWords.  These spammers in turn make money by creating pages with no value added content and instead using schemes to get people clicking paid links.  Often, these paid links are AdSense, which puts even more money in Google\u2019s pocket.  If bloggers are selling links directly to such people, they are in turn taking money directly away from Google, which, as a $200 billion corporation, isn\u2019t something Google is likely to be too happy about.  \nHowever, versus some of the companies Google allows to advertise in its search engine, many of those taking a Page Rank hit are producers of great content, and it\u2019s a total shame that this policy might ultimately drive them out of business.  As the buzz grows over this, it will be interesting to see what kind of response Google has to offer."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2007/10/24/google-page-rank/>