On Thursday, Web site administrators for major sites including the Washingtonpost.com, Techcrunch, and Engadget (as well as Forbes.com) found that their "pagerank"--a number that typically reflects the ranking of a site in Google results for key search terms--had dropped precipitously according to Google Toolbar, a software program that tracks Google's assessment of a site.

FORBES: Magazine Article

On Thursday, Web site administrators for major sites including the Washingtonpost.com, Techcrunch, and Engadget (as well as Forbes.com) found that their "pagerank"--a number that typically reflects the ranking of a site in Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) results for key search terms--had dropped precipitously according to Google Toolbar, a software program that tracks Google's assessment of a site.

FORBES: Google Scares The Search Crowd

For example, you can use PageRank Checker to submit a URL, or you can install Google's Toolbar to view each site's PageRank as you browse.

MSN: Four Tips for Raising Your Google Rank

"Typically what Google shows in the toolbar is not what they use behind the scenes, " he says.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Microsoft is tinkering with a technology called Stuff I've Seen that will pull results from the Web along with one's own computer and its network. (Microsoft claims this won't make personal files viewable by the public.) Google's Internet Explorer toolbar tracks the sites users surf and relays the addresses back to headquarters.

FORBES: Google Me Not

Google's engineers contribute code to Firefox and pay the foundation a share of advertising when people search Google in the browser's toolbar.

ECONOMIST: The world wide web: The second browser war | The

It also has a feature for searching the Web via Google.com integrated directly into the toolbar.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Google actually had this idea first, but with Google it is still a separate application and not yet incorporated into the toolbar.

BBC: [an error occurred while processing this directive]