google author rankHave you heard the term “author rank” yet? If not, you’re going to start hearing it soon if you follow the online marketing and SEO industries at all. What is it? From Google’s Agent Rank patent.

The identity of individual agents responsible for content can be used to influence search ratings.

Assuming that a given agent has a high reputational score, representing an established reputation for authoring valuable content, then additional content authored and signed by that agent will be promoted relative to unsigned content or content from less reputable agents in search results.

The fact that author rank is coming makes me extremely happy. Why? It’ll give more power to writers who produce consistently great content that is referenced by others, and make it harder for marketers to game the system by flooding the web with more crap content. More discussion here.