Well, Google’s said before that PageRank isn’t of much importance, and there’s more evidence today that the company continues to back that assertion.  Google has removed the PageRank section from its Google Webmaster Tools resource.

Googler Susan Moskwa explained in a Google Webmaster Help thread, “We’ve been telling people for a long time that they shouldn’t focus on PageRank so much; many site owners seem to think it’s the most important metric for them to track, which is simply not true.  We removed it because we felt it was silly to tell people not to think about it, but then to show them the data, implying that they should look at it.”

That makes a fair amount of sense.  Of course, there’s a difference between “not the most important metric” and “worth torpedoing,” so a lot of people may still miss the PageRank info.  A small detail can make a big difference in a tight traffic or ranking race.

Still, the move keeps everybody on an even footing, so it’s not like much is getting lost or gained.  This might just simplify everything, which would be nice.

By the way: Barry Schwartz notes that, oddly, PageRank values are still visible in the Google Toolbar.

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We’ll admit right here: times are tough, conferences are not cheap, and New York City won’t be the most pleasant place to be come November.  However, an interesting conference is indeed coming up, and you can continue reading for details.

The Content Revenue Strategies (CRS) conference and expo is what used to be known as ADSPACE.  It’s focused on AdSense and contextual advertising, and aimed at small- to mid-size publishers.  Sound familiar and/or fitting?

Representatives from eBay, AOL, Reebok, and the Wall Street Journal will all be present to share their insight.  What’s more, so will members of Google’s AdSense team, so some of the advice will come straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

CRS will take place on November 5th in New York, and early bird passes (available through tomorrow) are supposed to cost $395.  Use the promotional code CRSGoogle to get $100 off and soften the blow, though.

We’ll try to cover the most useful tidbits that come out of CRS, but nothing can quite replace being there, asking questions and making contacts.  Consider looking up info about old ADSPACE conferences if you’re on the fence, at least.

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Your humble author has a soft spot in his heart for forums; they provide invaluable education and entertainment concerning cars.  And now it looks like forums are due for a comeback, as Google may make it worth your while to start promoting brands on them once again.

Last night, a post on the Official Google Blog revealed, “[W]e introduced a new search feature that makes it easier for you to find forum posts or discussions related to what you’re searching for.  This new addition to Google search results applies to sites that tend to have a large number of posts on a specific topic.  When several different discussions on a site are relevant to your query, we indent them under the primary result and include the date of each post.”

So essentially, forum threads appear to be getting an SEO promotion, perhaps over other sites and blogs (depending on the situation).

Please don’t take this as a suggestion to troll forums, of course; forum moderators might simply ban you.  Or, if someone clicks through to a forum thread and sees nothing but self-promotion, no good will come of it.  It may just be wise to join some forums and become a member of the community, contributing when you can.

Don’t forget to spend time on a couple of car forums, too, if only because they’re so much fun.

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Situational awareness (AKA knowing what the heck is happening around you) is invaluable in many high-risk fields; soldiers and racecar drivers, for example, need to know what’s next to and behind them at all times.  This week’s article, which touches on registered domain names, will hopefully provide you with some similar info.

Verisign, which takes care of things relating to the .com and .net top-level domains, recently released a quarterly report.  A Royal Pingdom post states, “Counting all TLDs there are now 184 million registered domain names (to be precise, this was the number at the midpoint of 2009).”

The post later continues, “There are now 74.4 million country code TLDs (ccTLDs), which means that 40% of all registered domain names are ccTLDs.”

And finally, “An interesting trend revealed by the Verisign report is that the renewal rate for domain names has been decreasing for some time now, at least for .com and .net domain names.”

So there’s an idea of what’s going on in the wide world.  Given how massive some of these numbers are, the situation may sound scary, but if you think about how many actual competitors you’ve got, it should hopefully become apparent that you’re already head and shoulders above many, many things without even trying.

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Just about everybody wants more money.  Just about everybody also wants to work less.  With Google Web Elements, which was just introduced this week, the famous search giant should be able to help you on both fronts.

A post on the Inside AdSense blog stated, “You may know from our optimization tips that you can help increase your AdSense revenue by incorporating other Google products into your site. . . .  Web Elements let you easily add richness and interactivity to your site simply by copying and pasting a snippet of code.”

It then explained, “Inspired by the convenience of embeddable YouTube videos, each Web Element is built upon existing Google products. . . .  With the official launch of Web Elements, you can choose to include Web Elements from products like Google Custom Search, Calendar, Docs, Friend Connect, and more.”

Basically, then, you’ll wind up with a bit more filled space on your site - free of charge, of course - and the filler might act to catch people’s attention and earn you cash.

Google Web Elements is definitely worth a look.  Entities ranging from the Associated Press to an Italian heavy metal fan site have made use of the offering, so you should be able to, as well.

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