PageRank greyed out - gone?

PageRank is greyed out today. what does it mean? probably a glitch, hinting that a new release is on the way.

But imagine just a second that Google has actually decided not to display PageRank anymore - links traders will have to change their metrics.... it could become a nice mess if this is the case.

Everybody knows that links trading is one of the big challenge for google - major websites prefer to display direct links they have traded rather than adsense adverts, because it is more profitable for them to do so.

Permanently removing the PageRank bar from the toolbar would allow Google to fight effectively against links trading. But Pagerank is still such an important viral tool for google that I think they would remove it if they cannot find any other alternatives. And there are alternatives... My 2 pences: this is a glitch, probably linked to a new algorithm release, but that's all - will get back to normal before tomorrow.