After several months with no updates, Google has updated the Toolbar PageRank once again. This update comes after a long period of no movement at all. The last  Toolbar update was in June. Something which may have been a quirk as that particular update came within a month of the previous update.
Yet, a Toolbar PageRank update means little when it comes to your site’s ranking positions moving anytime soon. The PageRank value displayed in the Google toolbar are ancient artifacts from a time when the Toolbar PageRank might have actually mattered.
Today this has minimal impact on your Google SERP’s. This does not mean that PageRank has no impact in online trade, however the toolbar PageRank value displayed does not have any significant meaning. Google shows us one thing, then uses something completely different.
Google has also removed page rank from webmaster tools. No longer can you log into your webmaster tools account and determine which page has the highest page rank on your site. It’s completely up to you now to determine which pages on your site has PageRank and which ones have more than others.
There is a lot of controversy regarding PageRank. Most SEO experts will tell you to ignore the Toolbar PageRank. Still some people feel this is an important element of SERP results.
For a long time Google has had a near monopoly on the search market. Many people become obsessed by the PageRank that is displayed on the Google Toolbar. Advertisers will pay more for links or ads from a site with higher Toolbar PageRank. For many people to say this does not matter at all is only half the truth.
When it comes to Toolbar PageRank it does matter. Maybe not in SERP’s so much, but for advertisers looking to strike a deal with a site’s webmaster, Toolbar PageRank most certainly does matter.
Of course, buying or selling links based on Google’s PageRank score, with a view to attempting to manipulate your search results is an outdated practice, and one that is frowned upon by Google. Maybe Google removing the PageRank score from their webmaster tools account will have at least some psychological effect upon new webmasters, helping them to realise that excellent content mixed with ethical promotion of their site will work much better than ‘link buying’ Especially in the long term!