Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
Editor: Matt Paines

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Google Dance Schedule 2004

As 2004 draws to an end we look back on what Google has been up to. Forget IPO's, Adwords, Desktop Search etc. no just the updates - does a dance still exist, what happened to backlinks and is the PageRank tool bar broken?

First the statistics and what happened and when.

	BL	BackLinks
	PR	PageRank and BackLinks
	PR	PageRank only
	BL	BackLinks recalled

For the first six months of 2004, Google was happily updating the PageRank Toolbar and BackLinks fairly regularly. The two operations were synchronised and then came July. All of a sudden BackLinks changed, prior to this time Google BackLinks showed the number of sites with a PageRank of greater than PR4 that linked back to a URL. Google changed the way it displayed the results, it started to include BackLinks from any site irrespective of the PageRank. However it only showed a sample, not all. So the BackLink command in Google is pretty much useless these days.

July also saw a change in PageRank updates. Not only were they no longer synchronised with BackLinks but they started to happen less often. In the last six months there has only been one update which took place in October. If that wasn't confusing enough there was then the BackLink update that was recalled within 3 days. It is widely accepted that PageRank isn't broken it's just the ToolBar just isn't being updated.

One thing of note, and this may be a trend (or a complete red herring) but there were four BackLink updates July to September followed by a PageRank update early October. Excluding Octobers BackLink update that wasn't could it be we have one more BackLink update and then we will see the PageRank change, if right we have another 5wks to wait.

Data gathered using Dancer PRO.

this weekend saw another BackLink update, followed this morning by a PageRank update. If we assume the "dance that wasn't" was in fact a "dance" then Google is working to a pattern. Without this assumption Google is just doing whatever it likes which makes predicting the search giant a real source of annoyance for the entire industry, just how they like it.

	NEW 2005 BackLink and PageRank update calender. Googles 2004 and 2005 PageRank and Backlink history, including the revoked updates. Page updates as and when they happen.	PageRank update history

M.P