Google PageRank Patent Runs Out in 2011
Love it or hate it Google PageRank has been an important reference point for webmasters and internet marketers for a good few years now. There has been much argument about its credibility and true meaning, but I for one have found it very useful as an indicating factor when assessing the power of a website, the power of individual pages, and the efficiency of site internal linking structure. However, Google’s exclusive ownership of the PageRank patent will expire in 2011 (see p.14 of the Google 10-K 2009 filing), meaning that other search engines or non-search organizations can use the metrics. So how will this affect Google, webmasters and the SEO community?
The reason that I actually pay a lot of attention to PageRank is very simply because enough others do. What I mean by this is that even if PageRank was not really a true indication of the power of a site, because people think that it is they are going to be happier and more willing to exchange links with high PR sites, reference them in blog posts and forums etc, and even guest post on them…making them more powerful by default. This is what is known as a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ and I doubt Google even considered this happening when they first introduced PageRank.
Now, as mentioned earlier there is a great deal of doubt in internet marketing spheres about whether toolbar PageRank is a good representation of real power, and with good reason. Google has long been known as a search engine that is very protective over its operations and reluctant to give accurate information about the data it holds. If you run queries such as “link:www.example.com” or “site:www.example.com” chances are you will get widely inaccurate data returned. The other major search engines such as Yahoo! and Bing are more forthcoming with their data however, and are often used to research backlink profiles and page indexing levels, and I think this is where the risk lies for Google regarding the PageRank patent exclusivity expiry.
If, for arguments sake, Yahoo! decided to display PageRank itself and also decided to be more accurate about its true representation of power, this would have two major effects:
1. SEOs, Internet marketers, online PRs and webmasters etc would start using and referencing Yahoo! a great deal more as it would be an invaluable tool. As these groups of people are some of the most influential online, this could lead to a wider-scale shift in searching habits.
2. Perhaps more importantly the original PageRank algorithm was closely related to Google’s early ranking algorithm and whilst both will have changed over the years they are still likely to share some factors. This means that if Yahoo! or anyone else started displaying accurate PageRank, it would become a great deal easier to know which sites to get links from in order to increase your power in Google’s eyes. To put it another way, getting links from high PR sites will give you a better chance of improving your rankings than it did before.
As a last point it is worth noting that whilst other search engines or internet companies might get access to use the PageRank algorithm, it does not mean they have access the large amounts of data required to run the algorithm properly, and this is intellectual property Google does not have to give up. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see wont we.
About the Author:
Duncan is an avid Internet marketing professional and owner of an online business that specializes in selling items such as Animal backpacks or summer wear like Reef flip flops. He is still learning the trade everyday but thinks that anything is achievable with hard work.
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