Google's Move into Reputation Management: Monetising Social Networks

[petra]

Google (GOOG) has a patent pending on technology for ranking the most influential people on social networking sites like MySpace (NWS) and Facebook. In a creative twist, Google is applying the same approach to social networks it has used to dominate the online search business. If this works, it may finally make ads on social networks relevant—and profitable.....

The new technology could track not just how many friends you have on Facebook but how many friends your friends have.

[businessweek.com...]

[Receptional Andy]

It's an interesting idea to apply a PageRank-like algorithm to a social network. I can see a lot of vying for position too, and the same kind of issues that plague a "vote" based metric.

[petra]

Yes very intersting, Google trying to create a new (and very lucrative might I add) income stream. I can see this causing privacy concerns however, unless an opt out mechanism is put in place.

[jimbeetle]

The patent application was discussed [webmasterworld.com] when it was submitted back in July.

[rocco]

I cannot believe this could be a patented, this is already used widely. But ok.