Google Toolbar PageRank Updates

So there’s hasn’t been a full fledged toolbar PageRank export since the first quarter of the year, and everyone’s wondering when Google will update their toolbar PageRank.

There have been insignificant PageRank adjustments here and there since April, but nothing major. New pages have gone from PR N/A to PR0 regularly, but have not gone beyond that.

Google has recently updated their version of DMOZ’s directory as they usually do just prior to a toolbar export and backlinks have been updated as well. The RDF dump is from sometime prior to November 15th, but I’m not sure why they’ve chosen to use a dump that is over a month old.

It’s worthy to note that the search box for the Google directory no longer searches just the directory or the specific category that you’re browsing as in the past, but rather provides results from the web search. Is Google placing less emphasis on the directory and it’s content?

Is this Google’s way of getting the point across that webmaster’s should place less emphasis on PageRank and more emphasis on the quality of their content? Can we expect to see a toolbar export within the next 2 weeks? I’m thinking we might see an export around mid-January.