This article is based mainly on an original article by Google founders Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page

A good start

but also on hearsay, speculation and rumours.

That quickly falls apart.
I really don't want to offend anyone, but some people do read and take these articles seriously. This article was posted on a resource for webmasters and new-comers to the web industry. An informative article cannot be based on hearsay, speculation and rumours. It may make for interesting reading, but there's just no weight here.

Googleis not interested in allowing the public to know exactly how the PR is calculated since it is then easier to trick or cheat the search engine and since this would undermine its credibility.

I wish it was that simple. the true PR is only one of over 100 factors and manipulating the linking structure for over 20 billion pages is going to be a difficult task for many.

It does however appear that a variation over the basic formula is still used.

I thought this was publicly stated, but I'll check that out

Google assigns a PR of between 0 and 10 to all pages which it indexes. It is possible to install a Google toolbar which shows the PR when you visit a page. The toolbar can be downloaded from http://toolbar.google.com/.

Toolbar PR and true PR are not as intrinsically linked. I gave up on TBPR over two years ago (just as I came into the SEO industry). forget about it. It's a gimmick to keep the less-well-educated from messing with things that can make a difference.

In reality, the PR is a value between 0 and ‘a very large number’. A logarithmic scale is most likely used to translate the value into the PR we know.

Take just the first sentence of that comment -

In reality, the PR is a value between 0 and ‘a very large number’

and remember it has very little, or nothing, to do with TBPR
and is only one of over 100 ranking factors

It is true that much of what was stated in the above article was widely believed and could be used to manipulate rankings to one's advantage.

A good page used to reside here [http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/] but seems to be no more and is no longer found in the SERPs

old news I'm afraid.

forget the little green bar

Oh no, not this.
I'm sure thegyspsy will have some input.

The Big G just demoted me from a PR5 to a PR4 (last month).

Screw `em.

I have made an Executive Decision today, and have "awarded" myself a PR 11. Which doesn't exist (highest PR is a "10"). Which is exactly the point. It's all nonsense.

I wish we could put our Gyspsy in a TV commercial, enlightening people about PR. Maybe if we each kick in $5.00 to pay for the air-time?

I actually got an e-mail from a competitor in my web-field, who said she wanted to swap links with me, but only if I "have a PR of 4 or better".

Heavens, when will this stupidity END?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. We here at SR all know it's fertilizer, but the "general public"  doesn't know it. They think PR is important.

And the exact value of the importance they place on it, is the exact impact it has on all webmasters.

Well, at least this author was kind enough to tell us quickly that the article is fairly useless --

This article is based mainly on an original article by Google founders Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page but also on hearsay, speculation and rumours.

If I want a little fact in with my fiction, I'll watch Oliver Stone movies!

So, the author annoyed me from the beginning, but I just wanted to see if I knew enough to separate the fact from fiction. Should have stuck with "annoyed." It got worse!

Google is not interested in allowing the public to know exactly how the PR is calculated....

compared to

Before looking at how this works out, we’ll look at the exact formula used.

Huh? Either he's Page's boss, or dabbling too much into speculation. Traditionally, I'm not a violent person, but, in this case, I do have the desire to kick this author right smack in his bum!!! Good thing for him that his "exact formula" is where this reader jumped off his speculative merry-go-round. No telling what I'd want to do had I wasted even more time reading his article.

And, just so Northie knows I can decipher some "knowledge" as false, the dude confused me from the beginning when he didn't clarify the difference between that cute little PR icon on my tool bar above (Hey! I can't help it. I LOVE that my site actually has a rank above 0 some where on it. LOL) and Googles real PR.

Well, at least I found something better to do then finish the article...time to get back to the millenium party!!! http://forums.site-reference.com/topic/ … r-a-Party/

Just for the record… with my 1001st post;

I rant more about ToolBar PageRank (TBPR) obsession more than actual PageRank conversations..

Problem with the actual PR (calculated on the fly as opposed to the TBPR snapshot) is that is has slowly been devalued over the years in the rankings aspects of the algo(s)

So to that end, PR is not as valued as it once was, and TBPR is a mythical creature that does not guarantee high rankings not top traffic… the main goal of search marketing

So PR was once a mighty creature in SEO Lore… but alas, her reign has ended…

Thought this might be some dave bait - took a while to bite, though

Northie wrote:

Thought this might be some dave bait - took a while to bite, though

Well there was the move and trying to bite my tongue while you got caught up (post party)... so I finally broke down and jumped in (a bit)

How important is TBPR?  I have a site that is 4 months old - the TBPR is not showing any pagerank at all, yet I'm getting  nearly 300 visitors/day from Google on a relatively low-traffic niche.

TBPR is very limited in its usefulness.

You know.. this and only ONE other SEO forum I am on.. have the proper perspective on TBPR.. the rest.. ? The myth lives on