PR updates irrelevant... It’s Official... Well kind of...

[BradBristol]

Well kind of...

Matt Cutts on his blog, has confirmed (in a roundabout way) what a few of us have suspected for a very long time.

That Google PR updates are irrelevant to ranking.

In response to a rant about PR updates and ranking on his blog, Matt stated, “...PR updates are completely orthogonal”

Translating this statement of Matt’s from graduate level geek to readable high school drop out language it says in effect.... PR updates are completely irrelevant...

I think most of us knew that this was the case, but it is nice to hear it from the source, even if Matt did try to obnubilate his answer.

Source: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/bigdaddy-progress-update/#comment-12176

[JohnW]

Sorry to disagree but that’s not what I get out of it.

The original question was “Can we expect a PR update with BD, or is it simply the index infrastructure?”

In the context of the question, IMO, Matt means PR updates are unrelated to the BD issues, not that the updates are irrelevant.

[PhilC]

I looked up the word "orthogonal" when Matt posted it, and I also disagree that he meant they are irrelevant.

[sootledir]

"obnubilate" - that is awesome. :D

[BradBristol]

I looked up the word "orthogonal"... Sorry, but if you had to look it up then you don't know what it means in this context.
Math geeks (like Matt) use the term "orthogonal" as slang to describe somthing that is irrelevant.

Phil don't tell me you think Matt meant that PR updates are at right angles? ;)

JohnW, I see your argument, but I disagree with your conclusion.

PageRank updates are 'irrelevant' to ranking and to indexing, I think that makes them orthogonal and I am not trying to obnubilate the issue... :)

[PhilC]

No I don't think they are at right angles to each other :)

I used this part of the definition:-

"Mutually independent; well separated; sometimes, irrelevant to."

'Mutually independant' seems to fit. 'Well seperated' also seems to fit. 'Irrelevant' is not a definition, but 'sometimes, irrelevant to' is. So it makes sense to me to assume that Matt meant something along the lines of mutually independant or well seperated. "irrelevant" would no doubt be assumed by people who like to think that PageRank is completely dead.

[BradBristol]

Not going by Dictionary definitions here. As I said, "Math geeks (like Matt) use the term "orthogonal" as slang to describe something that is irrelevant."

It is slang and in this context it is well understood to mean 'irrelevant' by graduate level math geeks everywhere.

[PhilC]

I don't know how math geeks use, or if Matt is a math geek, or how he uses it. What I do know is that I can only go by the definition of the word (http://www.answers.com/orthogonal&r=67). There is a lot about maths there but nothing that suggests its primary use means irrelevant. I also know that we can't assume what Matt means by that word, so I'll go by the definition, and leave others to their assumptions.

[BradBristol]

Matt has a B.S. In Math from the University of Kentucky. So I guess that makes him a math ‘geek’.

I guess only Matt can answer what he truly meant by that statement, but I am sure he won’t expand on what he has already said. I think he used that particular word to confuse the issue (it worked).

can’t seem to find a dictionary with graduate level slang math terms...

[PhilC]

I think he used that particular word to confuse the issue (it worked).You may be right :)

[JohnW]

>readable high school drop out language

I guess this is where the wheels fall off. I may need to go back to school and study your language some more, BradBristol ;-)

When used in a way so as to mean irrelevent, this word refers to irrelevance in relation to something specific, not irrelevant in general. So, irrelevant in relation to BD but not irrelevant in general. I don't see Matt publicly stating that Google deliberately publishes something that is irrelevant.