Vineet Dwivedi's Blog

Google danced again and the page ranks of websites all over the world is changed. I am happy because our Bee English Dictionary reached a PR of 4 from 0 in just 3 weeks. Earlier this Web 2.0 dictionary was hosted on a subdomain of our site vocabbuilder.net. We had a lot of discussion on changing the domain internally because Google Webmasters Tool does not allow change of address from a subdomain to a full domain. This would mean all the indexed pages on earlier would need to be re-indexed and we were not sure how much time Google would take in doing this.

We finally decided to bite the bullet. Put a 301 redirect on all pages of the old domain (basically subdomain). Requested webmasters of pages having links to our page to change it to new domain. Some of them actually complied.

The thing to note here is that the Google has two page ranks for every page. One to show to the world through Google Toolbar and other to use in search results. Previous one is updated every 2-3 months and that is what webmasters called PR of a page. If your site/page is old enough you can be pretty sure that your actual PR is very close to your PR shown in the toolbar.  We are confident now that our site is getting traction and is being referred by web pages.

Let’s picture a civil servant called A who finds himself overworked. Whether this overwork is real or imaginary is immaterial; but we should observe, in passing, that A’s sensation (or illusion) might easily result from his own decreasing energy—a normal symptom of middle-age. For this real or imagined overwork there are, broadly speaking, three possible remedies

(1) He may resign.

(2) He may ask to halve the work with a colleague called B.

(3) He may demand the assistance of two subordinates, to be called C and D.

There is probably no instance in civil service history of A choosing any but the third alternative. By resignation he would lose his pension rights. By having B appointed, on his own level in the hierarchy, he would merely bring in a rival for promotion to W’s vacancy when W (at long last) retires. So A would rather have C and D, junior men, below him. They will add to his consequence; and, by dividing the work into two categories, as between C and D, he will have the merit of being the only man who comprehends them both.

It is essential to realise, at this point, that C and D are, as it were, inseparable. To appoint C alone would have been impossible. Why? Because C, if by himself, would divide the work with A and so assume almost the equal status which has been refused in the first instance to B; a status the more emphasised if C is A’s only possible successor. Subordinates must thus number two or more, each being kept in order by fear of the other’s promotion. When C complains in turn of being overworked (as he certainly will) A will, with the concurrence of C, advise the appointment of two assistants to help C. But he can then avert internal friction only by advising the appointment of two more assistants to help D, whose position is much the same. With this recruitment of E, F, G and H, the promotion of A is now practically certain.