Google and their 2 sets of PageRank

 

Many people obsess about PageRank (PR); they crave it like some crack addict. They wake up in a bath of sweat so they can run into their office and check the Google toolbar. PageRank gotta have my fix, need it can’t live without it.

If only they realised that what THEY see is different to what GOOGLE see! If only they realised that Google has TWO sets of PageRank. Actual PR and Toolbar PR (TBPR).

TBPR is related to the actual PR that Google uses, but is not constant. TBPR is a value that was snapshotted a while before it is exported. Technically TBPR is never updated as that would suggest that it is brought up to date, it is not. It is simply snapshotted and exported to the toolbar at a later date (as later as 3 months on occasion). I believe it is indicative of what PR WAS, but not what it IS

Actual PR is updated on a constant basis via ever flux, IE a page is added to the index, the PR value is added to the system and it propagates across the system, . The same is true for a site/page that is removed from the index. This is everflux, this is the PR that Google use in their algorithm, and NO ONE but Google can view it.

Many people are a little confused with regard content and PageRank having a relationship. The content of a website has absolutely no relation to the PR value. PR is PURELY about who links to you and their PR worth. Google ranks pages using 2 main streams Value and relevance. Value is PR and relevance is content (yours and the content of the sites/pages that link to you), although obviously there is a crossover as within that link will be PR also).

I better explain that a little.

When a site links to you it transfers two items

1. PR – this is a straight numeric value and is unaffected by anything else.

2. Relevance – This is all about context. The value of the link can be affected by many things. IE if your site is about black cats, and everyone links to you using the anchor text ‘white cats’ then BANG you are going to rank for ‘white cats’ Your page rank will have a value of ‘A’. If people link to you using the anchor text ‘black cats’ Bang, you are going to rank for the phrase ‘black cats’ your PR value however will STILL REMAIN as ‘A’ however because it is a purely mathematical calculation.

Hopefully that has set my stall out, but finally, is it right to say that TBPR means nothing?

Google TBPR DOES mean ‘something’ it means ‘something’ to people who do not understand SEO or web marketing in general. People are getting brainwashed by others into linking on PR values. This is simply wrong. They are not linking to valuable resources because those resources might have a low PR. My site ranks for phrases like ‘internet marketing consultancy’ with a PR4, I have a client site that is top 3 for the phrase ‘transport services’ and he is a PR3.

So does TBPR mean anything? Of course TBPR means ‘something’ that fact can not be disputed, what CAN be debated is WHAT it means and WHO it means anything to.

Written by JC Edwards (Old Welsh Guy) an internet marketing consultant based in Wales www.oldwelshguy.co.uk

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Voice Pay

 

The number of people online is approaching the one billion mark; the amount of online fraud is also growing at exponential pace. Online fraud such as Phishing is cited as one of the reasons many potential online shoppers refuse to buy on the Internet.
Banks and other organisations are continually finding solutions to combat fraud especially credit card fraud online.

Some success has been achieved, but success in some quarters usually sees increased fraud in other segments of the industry, for example Chip and Pin technology has significantly reduced credit card fraud in the retail industry, but a sharp rise in fraud committed with UK issued credit cards on continental Europe has been reported, mainly because UK is the only country that uses Chip and Pin technology in Europe.

Voice Pay, a new technology that is virtually impossible for fraudsters to abuse was recently launched. Voice Pay payment system is based on advanced speech recognition technology. The process underlying the technology is roughly the same as chip and pin; your credit card issuer has a pin on file for you, you enter the pin when verifying card payment to indicate you are the authorised owner of the card.
With Voice Pay, instead of entering verification digits in the form of alphanumeric numbers, your Voice acts as the verification tool. The bank or credit card company has your voice imprinted on a database, when you want to verify a payment, you are asked to enter your pin vocally, your speech is then analysed and compared with the sample your credit card company has on file for you, if it matches, your transaction it’s authorised, if your voice does not match, you are requested to contact your card issuer for additional verification.
What makes Voice Pay impossible to defraud is the fact that our voices, like our fingerprints are unique. Voices could sound similar to human comprehension but it is impossible to fool an advanced voice biometric system that analyses data far finer than the human hearing. Whilst a fraudster may get hold of your pin and your card and pretend to be you, your voice is impossible to fake.  Nick Ogden, the creator of Voice Pay is not new in the online payment industry. Among other projects, he founded online payment processing giant World Pay.

Voice Pay’s website claims that the technology works everywhere, “ in a shop, on a train, on TV, in a newspaper and on-line” but given the poor reception you get whilst using your phone on a train and some other locations, the technology could surely be compromised. Nick Ogden explained, “if the voice trying to authenticate payment does not match the voice on file due to poor line quality or any other reason, the authorisation will be declined and the caller referred to the card issuing company for additional confirmation”.  Nick Ogden said the technology has been in development and testing for many years. It is now a stable and secure payment verification platform.. Banks such as ABN-AMRO are already using the technology to authenticate some financial transactions.
If Voice Pay technology is rolled out en mass like Chip and Pin technology, it would strike a deadly blow to Identity Theft, Phishing, and other high street and online fraud.

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