Where is Google’s famed PageRank system going after the recent shakeout that has seen many top-ranked blogs fall off the PR cliff?

Many starry personal vehicles and big blogs are now on a PR of 3, down from 6s and 7s, although the quirky BoingBoing retains its 7. Techmeme has a PR of 4; the front page of Britain’s biggest selling newspaper, The Sun, is also on 4, as is The Blog Herald.

So why is this happening and, more to the point, what is it doing to Google’s business model?

John Evans has a go of making sense of this conundrum over on Syntagma.

Read it here.

Google’s print adverting program is designed to make newspaper print advertising available to hundreds of thousands of Google advertisers. It is said to create new revenue opportunities for publishers.

The program dates from November 2006 when a test that included 50 newspapers and a small group of advertisers was set up. “Since then the program has grown to more than 225 newspapers representing 32 of the top 35 DMAs and a combined circulation of almost 30 million. In addition, Google Print Ads is now available to hundreds of thousands of United States-based advertisers who currently have a Google AdWords account.”

Google Print Ads is designed to allow advertising agencies and advertisers of all sizes to plan and buy traditional newspaper media in both national and local newspapers within a single, web-enabled interface. The platform enables marketers to reach new audiences in ways that are relevant for newspaper readers and cost-efficient for advertisers and publishers. “And newspaper publishers can increase their bottom line by adding new customers from Google’s network of advertisers, many of whom are new to newspaper advertising. Newspaper publishers will continue to work directly with their loyal base of advertising customers. ”

Todd Haskell, vice president of business development, advertising at The New York Times, says, “We are always looking to extend our editorial products to new advertisers while also driving additional revenue to our business. Google Print Ads has brought in new advertisers who were either too small to consider advertising in a national newspaper or who hadn’t tried print advertising because their business was largely online. And Google Print Ads gives us the flexibility and control to set our own pricing, so there is never a conflict.”

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO says, “Over the past months, we have worked closely with our newspaper partners to design our Print Ads program to meet their needs and the needs of marketers. Newspapers are an important source of information and a powerful communication tool. With Google Print Ads we will bring more advertisers to newspapers which will ultimately benefit readers, publishers and advertisers.”

The Official Google Blog gives a comprehensive explanation of why the search giant bought ad serving company, DoubleClick.

“Google and DoubleClick play different but complementary roles in online advertising. Google primarily sells ads, and DoubleClick delivers (serves) ads. The relationship between Google and DoubleClick is analogous to the relationship between Amazon.com and Federal Express. Amazon.com makes money by selling a book to the consumer. Federal Express makes money by delivering it to the consumer.

“In summary, we’re buying DoubleClick because:

1. DoubleClick’s products and technology are complementary to our search and and content-based text advertising business, and give us new opportunities to improve online advertising for consumers, advertisers and publishers.
2. Historically, we’ve not allowed third parties to serve into Google’s AdSense network, which has made it hard for advertisers to get performance metrics. Together, Google and DoubleClick can deliver a more open platform for advertisers, and provide the metrics they need to manage marketing campaigns.
3. By combining Google’s infrastructure with DoubleClick’s knowledge of agencies and publishers, we can create the next generation of more innovative ad serving technology, one that significantly improves the efficiency and effectiveness of online advertising.
4. To manage ad inventory, some of the largest publishers use DoubleClick DART for Publishers – but a good portion of it goes unsold. It’s our view that the combination of DoubleClick and Google will help these publishers succeed by monetizing their unsold inventory.

Go here to see the rest of this informative article.