WebProNews

Web Rank, Yahoo's unlaunched answer to Google's PageRank, is in beta testing with a "small group" of Yahoo "companions," Yahoo PR told me today. It's also in unofficial beta test among a large group of webmasters and web marketers.

Tell WebProWorld what you think of Web Rank.

While it sounds from the Web Rank help pages that the primary means of determining the ranking is by the number of times visitors with a Yahoo tool bar hit a site, Yahoo told me that "the Web Rank values are determined by the Yahoo! Search algorithm."

PR at Yahoo flatly stated that Web Rank is not determined by the number of visitors with tool bars.

The response to Web Rank in forums thus far has been largely dismissive, as many thought that Web Rank would measure popularity the way that Alexa does.

I installed the Yahoo tool bar and accepted the Web Rank checker but it didn't work for me. Some forum members claimed a 50% working ratio. PR at Yahoo told me that's why it's unofficial and still in beta - they don't want people doing product reviews until it's working.

Those of you who are not in Yahoo's index may find an extra bonus from using the tool bar, as "Yahoo! Web Rank helps alert the Yahoo! Search crawler to the existence of a particular Web site or Web page, and direct a crawler to visit that Web site or Web page for inclusion in Yahoo! Search if it is not already in the Yahoo! Search index."

Just don't go visiting your competitor's unindexed sites.

If you'd like to check your Web Rank without downloading the bar, visit Digital Point's Web Rank Checker."

You can download Web Rank here, and learn more about Web Rank from Yahoo here.

Garrett French is the editor of iEntry's eBusiness channel. You can talk to him directly at WebProWorld, the eBusiness Community Forum.