I agree with the Google Rep...
Quote:
"The PageRank that is displayed in the Google Toolbar is for
entertainment purposes only. Due to repeated attempts by hackers to
access this data, Google updates the PageRank data very infrequently
because is it not secure. On average, the PR that is displayed in the
Google Toolbar is several months old. If the toolbar is showing a PR of
zero, this is because the user is visiting a new URL that hasn't been
updated in the last update. The PR that is displayed by the Google
Toolbar is not the same PR that is used to rank the webpage results so
there is no need to be concerned if your PR is displayed as zero. If a
site is showing up in the search results, it doesn't not have a real PR
of zero, the Toolbar is just out of date"
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/...5160#post25160
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As far as seeing it go - yep, you betcha.. The reason is because it degrades the quality of the Web, not as it exists but as we find it. On one hand we have Google saying they only want 'natural link stuctures' and then on the other hand there they are silently - but effectively - telling everybody who to link to.
The result of that is that big sites just get bigger in terms of link equity at an alarming rate. And often it has very little to do with quality. IMHO, PageRank is just a marketing vehichle for Google that they're willing to exploit. The only question is unto what end...
I'm obviously all for people considering the importance of a page when they're making their linking decisions. However, if they didn't have that little green bar there and instead had to do a little (very brief) research when making their decisions I think you'd see much better search results, ironically at Google.