For those of you that didn't understand my last post, here is the explanation.  Page Rank is a way that Google's Search Engine determines the authority of a website or blog.  On of the methods used by Google to determine the page rank of a site was to factor in the amount of links that a site/blog had pointing to it.  This is just a part of Google's secret algorithm.

With the evolution of the internet, companies discovered advertising on popular blogs like Dooce, Boing Boing, Engadget and TechCrunch was less expensive than traditional methods and the traffic was more targeted.  Companies started emerging with the sole purpose of selling ad space on blogs in the forms of banners, text links and reviews.  Not only did this create a sudden craze for backlinks (to increase page rank and make some money as a blogger).   It created a need for more bloggers with good content to spend these major advertising dollars.  It also created schemes and techniques to game the system.  Some bloggers like JohnChow ran contests on their blog in return for links, faves on Technorati and RSS subscribers.  Others like DoshDosh particpated in Technorati trains and still others offered free links for a review with a particular keyword text link.  Another way to lure advertising dollars was to remove "no follow" tags from sites.  This would cause google bots to follow any links in the comments or post.  What's the poblem with that?  This "adulterated" the "perfect" Google Algorithm.  Search results no longer brought up the best information for your query, it brought up the most popular blogger's post or the company that spent the most money on a "get paid to blog" site.  Google believes paid blogging and tex link ad companies were deliberately "selling" page rank by disguising it as a review, a link or a simple plug. 

Not only was Google not producing their "perfect search results", they were losing out on advertising dollars.  So what did they decide to do?  Punish bloggers.  How? 

Step One in Google's Plan to Control the Internet

First Matt Cutts posted an entry on his blog that asked bloggers to report aother bloggers they thought were getting paid for links.  (For those of you that don't know who Matt Cutts is...he is the poster boy for Google.)  The funny part is that anyone can accuse their competition.  It's like a witch hunt on the internet.

Step Two in Google's Plan

Companies that pay for reviews like ReviewMe.com or for text links like Tex-Link_ads.com base their advertising dollars on three things. 

1.  Google Page Rank

2.  Alexa Ranking

3.  Technorati links (or favorites)

By taking away a blogger's or webmaster's page rank, they greatly effected their earnings.  For A-list bloggers like JohnChow, ProBlogger and others...it was not a big blow.  Their page views, comments, RSS subscribers and popularity on the net still get them top billing.  For less popular bloggers, it had devastating results.  Many single moms, disabled and reitred individuals were writing reviews to supplement their income.  The worst part is that Google started to penalize bloggers that hadn't even participated in compensated advertising. 

Step Three

What made so many individuals angry is that Google continued to advertise these companies that paid for links and reviews.  Many of the advertising companies still had their page rank, while bloggers were losing theirs.  Bloggers were calling Google hypocrites.  What did Google do?  For a short period of time, Google pulled ads from companies like TextLinkAds and LinkWorth.  It didn't last long.  I'm sure they are some of the biggest advertisers they have.  It didn't make for good business.  I googled several of the text link advertising companies while writing this post.  Google is taking their advertising dollars once again. 

The Google Ewar is a little more involved than this.  I just wanted to give a short explanation of what is going on. 

Now that you understand what I'm talking about, if you want to see your page rank...download the Google toolbar and make sure you have the page rank tool displayed.  It will tell you your page rank in the blogosphere.  The perfect score is 10 which you will see every time you visit www.google.com.  The A-listers have 6 pr and above.  By the way, even The WashingtonPost and Forbes lost their page rank in the first wave of penalties.  Some of the blogger's page rank was restored within days while others are still being penailzed. 

Welcome to the business side of blogging....