automatic checkers?

[teepee]

in google's info section, they state automatic PR checkers are against their terms of service as they are a bandwidth hog and whatnot; what specifically are they referring to?

doesn't the google toolbar fall into that category?
or how about the firefox extension?

[Paz]

Hi,

Google don't like tools that make too many automated enquires and trawl through the serps too frequently, using resources and bandwidth.

They understand that webmasters like to check their rankings though, so they've made an API that is more friendly to their system.

The toolbar enquiries are handled by a dedicated server - I think it's called "toolbarqueries.google.com"

Cheers,
Paz.

[teepee]

thanks for clearing that up :)