Mentioned in Forbes.com – Google Scares The Search Crowd

Andy Greenberg of Forbes (on Google PageRank) says “A shift in the search giant’s algorithm causes fear and trembling – but so far, little else.”

On Thursday, Web site administrators for major sites including the Washingtonpost.com, Techcrunch, and Engadget (as well as Forbes.com) found that their “pagerank”–a number that typically reflects the ranking of a site in Google results for key search terms–had dropped precipitously according to Google Toolbar, a software program that tracks Google’s assessment of a site.

Bloggers immediately began wringing their hands. Google stayed mum, even in the midst of the company’s parley with analysts on the same day. So, panic aside, what does such a shift mean for the affected sites? Link.