Google PageRank on a Mac?

Dave, I've been reading and hearing about Google's mythical PageRank for quite a while, but what bugs me is that I haven't figured out how to ascertain my PageRank on a Mac. I know that Google has their Google Toolbar for Windows, but I don't want to have Windows just for that purpose! Sheesh. What's a guy to do?

Dave's Answer:

Great news, actually. In the last few weeks a couple of different - really quite different - options have arisen. The most exciting perhaps is the new Google Toolbar for Firefox, which works on both Mac and Windows versions of Firefox.

As soon as I saw it, I promptly downloaded it while running Firefox, then clicked "yes" to the installation question. I restarted and was rather surprised to have a Terms of Service window to click through:

Installing the Google Toolbar for Firefox

Not a big deal, but I've never had to agree to specific terms of service before I could proceed! Then, ta-daa:

Once I did agree to the terms, I'm delighted to have a Google Toolbar on my Mac because, like you, I am always curious about my PageRank (and I also am part of an ad network that pays for small text links on high PR sites: contact me if you'd like a referral).

The other way to check PageRank on a Mac is through Mac OS X Tiger's cool Dashboard system:

Google PageRank Dashboard Widget for Mac

This particular widget, formally called Google PR Widget, can be downloaded from author Ran Aroussi's widget directory. It's simple, elegant, and so far as I've tested it, the results are completely consistent with what the Google Toolbar reports.

Of course, how important is PageRank? Well, I talk about it in great detail in my upcoming book Growing Your Business with Google and I also talk about it here on this weblog too, in my articles on Google PageRank. In a nutshell, PR probably affects how often and quickly your site is spidered and it likely has some small effect on your search engine results, but it's not the magic elixir to get #1 placement on Google. If only.

Anyway, those two options will give you different ways to answer your question and track PageRank. In their own ways, both are excellent tools.

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Categorized: Mac OS X Help , Search Engine Optimization (SEO) (Article 4065, Written by Dave Taylor)
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Reader Comments To Date: 22

Susan Midlarsky said, on July 12, 2005 10:39 AM:

For those of us not on Tiger yet, Konfabulator has a Google pagerank widget that works with Safari. It doesn't work with Firefox, though.

Jason Sanzone said, on January 31, 2007 3:53 PM:

I just wish there were a simple plugin to display pagerank within safari..without the need for a toolbar or switching to another browser.

sohbet said, on March 27, 2007 10:44 AM:

For those of us not on Tiger yet, Konfabulator has a Google pagerank widget that works with Safari. It doesn't work with Firefox, though.

Kirill Morozov said, on March 30, 2007 5:57 AM:

Does anybody knows, where to download pagerank plugin for safari? does it exists?

Thanks

Mike said, on July 23, 2007 8:43 PM:

Nice writeup. Thanks.

I would just like to add that Google Toolbar for Firefox is well-known (well, to a degree) to freeze and de-stabilize Firefox (like Firefox just stops responding, stops loading pages, etc).
Don't know if it's a Firefox problem or Google's problem, but I'd say this plugin should be the first one you should try to uninstall in case of the fore-mentioned problems with Firefox.

kelebek said, on November 19, 2007 2:12 AM:

you should enable "view source" code on example projects

Fred said, on May 10, 2008 9:42 AM:

I still expect a plugin for Safari to systematically checks the PR, just like Firefox does. Just because Safari is much faster.

Fred said, on May 10, 2008 9:47 AM:

Another thing: I've just installed this "Google PR widget", the problem is that it gives the domain PR, not the PR of the page...=> useless

Donovan Roddy said, on May 15, 2008 9:07 PM:

Hey Dave I had heard Apple was working with Google on a few different things and an extension for Google's toolbar was something that was in the works, do you know if there's any truth to that?

Jake said, on March 11, 2009 11:15 AM:

thanks for the guide!

sikiş said, on June 17, 2009 10:28 AM:

thnX admin

Magoo said, on August 28, 2009 5:37 AM:

I downloaded the Google PR widget from the Apple site but I just can't get it to work. I enter a URL, hit enter and just nothing happens - am I being really dumb?

depannage informatique said, on September 30, 2009 8:09 AM:

i have downloaded this program and it works great for pagerank, thx !

Photographer London said, on October 13, 2009 3:42 PM:

Thanks for the info Dave. Looks like I'm off to start using firefox again dammit!

JSE Parker said, on February 24, 2010 6:15 AM:

Thank you Dave, I used pagerank in the web developer browser in Firefox which works great

Tom said, on February 24, 2010 6:17 AM:

nice one firefox works for me, great post!!!

Daphne Chantell said, on March 25, 2010 4:03 PM:

Very good post! It helped me

angela bennett said, on June 28, 2010 4:03 PM:

Thank you! This script worked great for me. I’ve been search for about four hours and finally found one that was up to date

Kelly said, on October 29, 2010 5:30 PM:

We just launched a Safari extension that resolves the pagerank issue. You can check it out here:

http://pcunleashed.com/download/pagerank-unleashed/

Matt Canvas said, on April 11, 2011 10:53 AM:

Thanks I have hunted for this for hours! So easy, thank you.

Carol Villanova said, on September 16, 2011 3:23 PM:

Great Google PR toolbar for firefox. Do they have one for Google Chrome as well?

patrik larsson said, on November 30, 2011 4:19 PM:

Very difficult to understand how to install and to start-up. Please update the instructions for the "not so often user".Took me like 20 minutes. Thanks for the upload, it will probably be great use.

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Google PageRank on a Mac?

Reader Comments To Date: 22

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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