Backdoor to Querying Page Rank?

[mleachpdx]

I've seen sites using URLS such as the following to retrieve real-time page rank values:

http://www.google.com/search?client=navclient-auto&ch=[A 10 digit number]&features=Rank&q=info:http://www.cnet.com

But I can't find this API published anywhere in Google Developers documentation.

Is this a paid web service API? Thoughts?

Thx!

[seomike]

ch= is the checksum number given to all webpages. It's not a code for PR. You have to calculate the check sum for a url, then query toolbarqueries.google.com with the correct ch= and url= and you get an xml responce. That responce has the PR for the page.

Google doesn't suppy this. Ya have to hack it.

[mleachpdx]

Ahhh. I see. Google really ought to capitalize on this opportunity and provide a paid web service to deter hacking. It's easily worth $19.99 a month for 10,000 PR queries for an ethical SEO.

They could even limit the queries to declared, verified, and managed domains (to deter the perceived 'evil' of competitive analysis).

I found more on this topic here (http://forums.seochat.com/archive/t-15348/New-Google-checksum-algorithm).

Thx

[alias420]

I dont think they would make too much money since they already give the info out for free and anyone coding a tool for it will probably just use the above mentioned method due to the low cost.

[seomike]

Yup thats how I found it. Ran across a php project where they reverse engineered the checksome. They published the math and the firefox pr extension was born along with proogle and a slew of other little toys.