Earlier today, our fake PageRank checker started showing a gray PageRank bar (indicative of PageRank N/A or unknown) for all sites that we checked. We thought there was something wrong with our fake PageRank checker, until we started receiving word from some of our users that none of the fake PageRank checkers anywhere is working. All websites are currently PR N/A or unknown, including google.com itself.

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.