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On Monday, March 7 2016, Google officially killed off Toolbar PageRank scores to the few browser tools and web site tools that use it. The 0 to 10 PageRank score that was heavily used by SEOs and webmasters in the early 2000s will be completely unavailable to all within two weeks. Google told me it takes time for all the servers to completely remove the score.
So technically, March 7th was the last Google Toolbar PageRank update, which essentially removed the data used by external tools.
I covered this at Search Engine Land yesterday afternoon. If you are using tools now to check PageRank, which I doubt, they will stop working within a couple weeks.
I should make it clear that Google does use PageRank internally and it is still an important factor in their algorithm. But the external PageRank score shown in these tools and the Toolbar was between 0 and 10, whereas the score used by Google internally is way more complex.
Google has been killing off PageRank in the toolbar for years and years. In 2007, Google asked webmasters for feedback on removing PageRank and then in 2009, Google removed showing PageRank like data in Webmaster Tools (Search Console). But in 2013, Matt Cutts told us Google probably will never kill off PageRank in the toolbar. Well, Matt is no longer there and it was done.
Then in 2012, Google stopped updating external PageRank by accident updated PR in December 2013. Since then Google told us time and time again that Google will never update PageRank in the toolbar again.
The good thing, most webmaster forums I am reading are like "whatever" and "no big deal" and "who cares" and "why is this news." That is an excellent reaction, the reaction Google wants to hear. And this move will solidify all of that going forward.
The funny thing, when I reported it yesterday, some people didn't believe me. Google has confirmed it in real life if you do not believe me.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Twitter.
Update: As of April 14, 2016 - no PageRank scrolls from the Toolbar work anymore.
