Author Stats Has Been Removed From Google Webmaster Tools

Breaking! Holy smokes. Author stats is now gone from Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). It sat in limbo since 7/9, but now 404s. I was going to write a post about it hanging (and not updating), but now it's gone. Poof. It started hanging right after author photos were removed.

In the screenshot below, you can see the original link for author stats, then the 404 page, and then the "labs" section removed. It's gone alright. I've reached out to Google's John Mueller to find out more about this change.

It sure makes you wonder what this means for the idea of "author rank". :) Not exactly a sign that Google is driving forward with the idea.... More to come.