Back in September of 2004, I commented that it would be nice to see a third party create an independent ranking system that would be similar in concept to PageRank. The post is here. One of my favorite SEO buddies, Randfish, is one of a group of people who are working on it as we speak. He discusses the possible system, called OpenRank, at his blog post today at www.seomoz.org/blogdetail.php?ID=189. Of course, the biggest issue of whether or not such a system can be accomplished is cost. But according to Rand, they hope to replace the aging, inaccurate measurement of PageRank and replace it with true measurements of global and local link popularity on the web. Such a system would be a boon to the SEO world. I sincerely hope they can accomplish the goal, and I wish them much luck. Here's to OpenRank!