Greyed out inconsistent - So what is your site's Google PageRank? - SitePoint Community Forums: "PR is another thing- ive seen inconsistent greyed out bars one minute then restored the next kind of readings, even on google own pages during mid aug on the .co.uk. "

Ahmed Farooq @ ahmedf.com - Google spamming - the newest way!: "For the past few months, the big thing in spamming was to fire away at guestbooks. People would spend a huge amount of time just signing guestbooks. Of course with this, they would always leave their: 'Come visit my phentermine and viagra sites!!

Google, ever-based on sites linking to you, and the text they contained, would send these sites skyrocketing in the rankings. No where was this more evident than for 'web hosting' in which for the spots 10-20, about 7 were guestbook spammers.

Of course the dilemma posed is that it is very possible that a competitor could be posting your links, hoping that you get banned. So instead of simply banning such sites, google has to filter out these results.

It took them some time, but most guestbooks were eliminated. Of course this came amidst their disastrous April [and last real] 'google dance' and a lot of people missed it.

Spammers, being the ever resilient cockroaches they are, turned to the current poster child of the internet.

Web Logs"

The Register: "But a programming error by the search engine has compounded the problem: by inadvertently blocking thousands of sites from Google users.

It's been called a 'Google-NACK': you enter a particular search term and Google tells you that there are thousands of matching results, but fails to return many, or any results.

For example, a search for keyboard bracelet returns just five sites out of 'about 49,900'. (Your mileage may vary, as Google results differ depending on where you are, and which way the Segway scooters are pointing - but it's a fairly typical figure.)

What's happening? Award-winning researcher Seth Finkelstein has a theory why. Google's own spam filters, designed to weed out link farms created by pornographers and spammers and Scientologists, are crude, and are blocking many innocent sites.

'Technical solutions may have unintended consequences,' he says. "

Don't say how came to this conclusion..
The Register: "In an effort to weed out the noise, Google constantly refines its weighting algorithm, which it says is a combination of a hundred different factors. In an attempt to thwart deliberate gaming by link farms and blog noise (exacerbated by lossy software gimmicks such as 'Trackbacks', which generate reams of content-free pages for Google's crawlers), Google has stepped back from its trademarked PageRank� method and instead, emphasized more traditional factors such as anchor text. "

Using Adwords free tracking tool to measure keyword relevence:
Google Rolls Out Keyword Conversion Tool:
"Mobile-device software seller Iambic, one of the first AdWords' advertisers to use the conversion-tracking tool, said it would allow the company to better allocate its $1,500 per month AdWords budget.
'We couldn't figure it out,' said Iambic's director of marketing, Sebastian Dijmarescu, of the return from AdWords' campaigns. 'It was a guessing game.' " conversion tracking allowed him to see clearly which keywords were working best. Google's campaign management reports carry a keyword campaign's conversion rate and cost per conversion.
... The new conversion-tracking tool is free to advertisers, allowing them to insert a line of JavaScript into their Web pages to track whether users arriving via keywords convert. In addition to purchase conversion, advertisers can track if a user signs up for a newsletter, views certain pages, or qualifies as a sales lead by giving contact information. As an additional benefit, advertisers can have the value of each conversion sent back to Google and included in their reports. "

API tool to monitor results for search terms & any changes in SERPS - :
20 Great Google Secrets: "Google Alert (www.googlealert.com) monitors your search terms and e-mails you information about new additions to Google's Web index. (Google Alert is not affiliated with Google; it uses Google's Web services API to perform its searches.)"

How google spiders prioritise sites to crawl:
CanadaIT.com - News On The Web: "Nevill-Maning showed a pyramid diagram to illustrate how Google organizes its searches. At the bottom is 'main,' where there tends to be higher latency for pages that don't change very much. 'Fresh,' in the middle, includes portals that need more up-to-the-minute checks, like e-commerce sites during the December holiday shopping season. On top is 'News,' for CNN.com and other sites that change all the time.
To maintain the relevancy of its search results, Google hires PhDs with expertise in machine learning to create algorithms that look for links to other sites -- what Nevill-Manning called the company's secret sauce. "

"a company rule stipulates that 20 per cent of their work hours can be devoted to brainstorming. "We don't quite know what it will be useful for," he said of Google Sets, "but it's awfully fun."

Google CEO speaks out on future of search | CNET News.com: "'The primary mission of Google is to get you what you want, rather than what someone thinks you want,' Schmidt said. ..

Nurturing passion is another key area when building a start-up, Schmidt said.

"It's human nature people want to do something that will matter and change the world," Schmidt said. "And it's these companies that will be built on passion. Google has a rigorous hiring system to draw in people with these sorts of traits, from passion to a perspective of limitless boundaries.""

To save my breath & stop repeating myself I suggest everyone let Jill Whalen nag them instead..Search Engine Optimization Advice - Tips - Best Practices-Business Audio Book
Bet they move the file...

To get fresh version of toolbar & PR rather than cached & then check for Greyed out PageRank pages: delete search history from the Google Toolbar, from the Google search box, and from your browser

Google Toolbar FAQ: "Why doesn't the PageRank button display anything?
If you are behind a proxy web server or a firewall, it may be interfering with the Toolbar's requests to extract PageRank information from Google. Try out one of our experimental features, designed to fix this problem. Click on the Google logo, and from the drop-down menu select (or press the Options button) to access Options. Select the More tab in the Options window then check the box next to the option Fix PageRank through proxies (experimental). Alternatively, you can disable the Advanced Features entirely on the Google Toolbar. To do so, click on the Google logo, and from the drop-down menu select Help > Privacy Information. Uncheck the boxes listed under Advanced Features.
Note that the PageRank display will not automatically fetch information from pages with CGI arguments (that is, pages with a '?' present in the URL)."

If no-one else has time to read the full Google webmaster pages, here are a few of the most important points.

1) The basics:
Google Information for Webmasters: "Google's order of results is automatically determined by more than 100 factors, including our PageRank algorithm. Please check out our 'Why Use Google' page for more details. Due to the nature of our business and our interest in protecting the integrity of our search results, this is the only information we make available to the public about our ranking system."

2) Google's words on SEO & unsolicted emails:

Google Information for Webmasters: "While Google does not have relationships with any SEOs and does not offer recommendations, we do have a few tips that may help you distinguish between an SEO that will improve your site and one that will only improve your chances of being dropped from search engine results altogether.
Be wary of SEO firms that send you email out of the blue.

Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
'Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories...'
Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for 'burn fat at night' diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators."

3) Checking PR automatically:
Google Information for Webmasters:

Fiction: Automated "ranking checking" programs are a good way for webmasters to save time and measure their "online presence."
Fact: Automated "ranking checking" programs violate Google's terms of service. They use server resources that should be spent on answering user requests. We strongly request that you not use rank checking programs to check your position on Google

4) On links, a cautionary tale quoted by Google:
Finally, we broke down and joined one of these programs. Unfortunately, the program used hidden links, and Google removed us from the index within a week. I guess it's true that anyone can get fooled into buying snake oil."
- Frank, owner of a limousine services company

5) Submitting:
Fiction: A website will be removed from Google's index if it's 'over-submitted'.
Fact: We do not require submission nor do we penalize sites for 'over-submission'. You are free to submit as often as you wish. However, given the nature of our inclusion process, your time is better spent improving the content and links of your site.

Google APIs Intended to improve search results for the topic being researched NOT to glean information about google technology & ranking algorithms.

Google Web APIs - Home: "Develop Your Own Applications Using Google
With the Google Web APIs service, software developers can query more than 3 billion web documents directly from their own computer programs. Google uses the SOAP and WSDL standards so a developer can program in his or her favorite environment - such as Java, Perl, or Visual Studio .NET."

Google Web APIs - Terms: "Terms and Conditions for Google Web API Service
By using this service ('Google Web APIs') you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions (the 'Terms and Conditions').
Personal and legitimate uses only"

G 10
allinurl:www.totaltravel.com on all 10 datacenters
50,600
63,800
64,000
63,800
59,800
56,400
64,000
68,100
61,000
44,300

As Google is so crucial for traffic it merits seperate blogging so that entries about it do not get buried amongst the noise from all other SEO info.

Curiouser & curiouser... quick allinurl:totaltravel.com shows 61,000 pages BUT the cached home page is still Whale watching & no recently spidered date shows on Google serps (search engine results pages)