I was filled with horror yesterday when I discovered that my potentially PR4 blog had had its PR reduced to zero, yes, that’s a ’0′, a big fat ‘oh’. Nothing, nada… 875 posts, Tech, Alexa, and traffic all good, with 2 or 3K unique page views a month… And it’s worth nothing in Google’s eyes…

At first, I thought it was a glitch in the PR tools I was using but then I began to discover that many, many bloggers even those who’d had PR3s, 4s, and 5s, had simultaneously had their ranking reduced to ZERO by Google. Even big name bloggers have had their PR ranks reduced by upwards of 2 points.

Many other bloggers are just seriously p***ed off at Google for doing this. And why? Because it seems that Google want to be the only game in town for ranking, searching and monetizing websites. And that’s just not right. Google’s search engine is good, but Adsense is not, PageRank is now worthless, and competition is increasing…

Meanwhile, here are some of the reactions from others:

The thing about that thing, From Table4five blogger Elizabeth who writes…

But … I hate to tell them this, but they do not OWN THE INTERNET. The Internet was invented as a way to share information, plain and simple. “Oogle” might have it’s fingers in a lot of pies, but it is not the only game in town. There are other search engines, other RSS readers, other email systems. And I for one intend to give those other companies more of my business. …

The Community Izea Blog writes:

The problem with Google PageRank is that it is both self serving and irrelevant to actual traffic and influence. The arbitrary and unpredictable nature of this ranking system has left both bloggers and advertisers longing for accurate statistical data since long before PayPerPost. Unfortunately, there are few options out there when it comes to determining the value of a blog. While sites like Alexa attempt to estimate traffic they are inaccurate and do a terrible job when it comes to blogs with smaller niche audiences.

One of my favorite bloggers, Skeet has written about this, too. Skeet writes in colorful language:

I’m here to tell you folks, it doesn’t matter. At least not to me, and probably not to you if you see which way the wind is blowing. By using their new criteria for ranking blogs (whatever that might be) the Big G has shafted, not the bloggers, but themselves.

Other more well-known bloggers, too. AndyBeard, John Chow, etc… The list is getting longer by the minute, too… There are many excellent posts, too many to mention.

As you can guess, I’m angry, too. Google may own the index for Google, but I own my own blog. They can rank it any way they like, but I’ll be damned if they can tell me how to run my blog. Really, so I’m beginning my own campaign of action. I’m no David, but Google is a Goliath… I won’t be able to knock it down with a lucky strike of my sling, but… I’m going to chip away at it with the chisel of my words, supported by the hammer of my actions… It won’t be an easy victory, but it will be sweet.

I’ll outline my own plan of action against Google in the next few days… I don’t expect anyone to follow me, but I’ve had enough with this aggressive bullying behavior by a monopolistic company whose primary goal is now to eliminate competition in an illegal and uncompetitive manner. Is it time for us to be suing Google? Perhaps.

How has your blog been affected? Do you think it’s important or not? What are your plans now?