Several websites are now punished by search engines especially Google. Uncoverthenet.com, for instance, has PR 0 because of Google penalty. However, the directory homepage as well as its sub pages still have page rank.

In a blog entry entitled Google entering into Evil, an author of Uncoverthenet.com wrote, "Google needs to provide good search results. Failing to do so will harm the company and give searchers bad results. To do, it must constantly tweak the algorithm to weed out spam sites. In the process, some innocent sites get caught and removed from any meaningful Google rankings."

The author further added, "Google is fully aware of this. However, for the common good of their search results, Google is willing to enter into evil by allowing some innocent sites to be hurt. Failing to remove a few innocent here and there by not changing the algorithm would result in more spam in the SERPs. No amount of hand wringing will prevent all innocent sites from harm."

After several PR penalties suffered by online directories, many enthusiasts concluded that Google hated directories. However, in the previous month site-sift.com, also a directory site, has moved its PR from 0 back to 8. I expect that innocent websites would get back the PR they merit.