Starting yesterday afternoon, people began noticing the little green pixels in the Google Toolbar began updating. Yes, there was a Google Toolbar PageRank update last night and many of the forums are buzzing about it.

Yes, a Toolbar PageRank update means nothing in terms of your ranking changing anytime soon. The PageRank scores shown in the toolbar are outdated and have zero direct impact on your Google rankings. That doesn’t mean that PageRank has no influence, but the toolbar score does not have any influence. Google shows us one thing, but yet uses another thing.

The last possible PageRank update was in early April 2009, so it has been just about two months since the last update. Typically Google updates the PageRank value in the Toolbar every few months or so. So this update does seem more recent then updates in the recent past.

Forum discussion at several forums including:

WebmasterWorld Google Webmaster Help HighRankings Forums DigitalPoint Forums Google Web Search Help Search Engine Roundtable Forums