We’ve confirmed this PageRank update based on the fact that RankChecker.com is now PageRank 4 (was PageRank 3 before today).

Thank you, Google!

We’ve updated our fake PageRank checker in accordance with the changes that Google made, so it’s working now.

Thanks to those who alerted us about this issue.

We suspect that is a prelude to a PageRank update. If it is, then the correct PageRank of all websites should start showing up in a few hours.

Others are saying that this is Google’s way of giving tribute to Steve Jobs, Apple’s founder, who passed away earlier today. We think this is ridiculous. Of all the things that Google could do, why suspend PageRank for Steve Jobs? Only webmasters and Internet marketers know and care about PageRank. Google already has a link on its homepage to the Apple website — this is a tribute. Not showing PageRank is not.

We don’t know what’s going on yet, but we’ll post an update when we know more.

In the meantime, let’s remember Steve Jobs. We’ll miss him.

A few of our users have reported noticing similar minor changes in the Google PageRank of their websites. DigitalPoint forum users, particularly those who frequent the Google thread, likewise confirmed that a PageRank update occurred.

The PageRank update yesterday is considered minor for two reasons:

1. The PR update only affected a small fraction of blogs and websites. In our case, only 3% of our blogs and websites were affected.
2. Only blogs and websites that had PageRank 0 (zero) or PageRank N/A (unknown) were affected (at least based on our own observation and what has been reported to us). Blogs and websites that already had existing PageRank were not affected (that is, their PR was not updated).

Were your sites and blogs affected? Share your experience by leaving a message.

In addition to showing your site’s PageRank, the badge from RankChecker updates automatically — if your site’s PR goes up or down, the badge will show this change without your having to regenerate the code.

The badge also shows the website’s actual domain name, so people will know right away if someone is displaying a PR badge for a different website. Of course, the PageRank displayed on the badge is verified by RankChecker — the badge is red if the PageRank is fake and green if it is valid.

What Does It Look Like?

If you’re wondering what the badge looks like, here’s the one for rankchecker.com.

How Do I Generate It?

1. Go to the Get PageRank Widget page on RankChecker. Alternatively, go to the RankChecker home page, and then click the Get PageRank Widget link under the logo.
2. In the box below the logo, type your domain name. You can type the domain name with www (www.mysite.com) or without www (mysite.com).
3. Click the Get Widget button. RankChecker generates the code for the badge. When the code is ready, an image of the PR badge appears below the box on the left and the actual badge code appears on the right.
4. Copy the code (all of it).
5. Go to your website, and then paste the code on your home page. If you are using WordPress for your blog, you can insert the code into a WordPress text widget.

That’s it! So easy to use, right? Go ahead and generate the code for your website. Show off your PageRank!

We hope you have fun using this new feature. As usual, if you have any comments, contact us or leave a comment below.

1. It’s slow
2. It doesn’t give you other important domain and SEO information, such as the number of backlinks, domain age, and directory listing.

So we’ve developed a new fake PR checker that is fast, accurate, and reliable, and provides domain age and backlink information:

http://www.rankchecker.com

We think you’ll find rankchecker.com useful whether you are:

• Buying a domain name or website: Google PageRank is one of the many metrics that determine the value of a  domain name or website. Some people think that the higher the PageRank is, the more valuable a domain name or website is. If you are using PageRank as one of the metrics when purchasing a domain or website, you can use RankChecker.com to verify that the domain’s or website’s PageRank is indeed valid or genuine. (Yes, some people actually fake PageRank so they could sell their website or domain name at higher prices. More on this in a later post).
• Buying advertising or contextual links from a site with PageRank: Although PR supposedly does not directly affect a site’s ranking in Google’s search results, people who buy online advertising (in the form of sponsored links or posts) still prefer to buy from websites with high PR. If you’re one of these people who buy links and value PageRank so much, make sure you’re not buying from a site with fake PR. Note that Google discourages buying and selling links for the purpose of passing PR.

We’ll also be adding other SEO and webmaster tools later. The tools that we’re working on include SERPs checker for Google, Yahoo!, and Bing, bulk fake PR checker, reverse IP checker, etc.

We welcome your comments and suggestions. We’d love to hear if there’s anything that you think we should add to make the site more useful to you and other users.