The Next PageRank

Matt McAlister has an interesting post today (I like the graphics) thinking out loud about the next PageRank, or method of assigning authority or validity to information found on the Web.

PageRank focused on hyperlinks; the more hyperlinks (citations) the more valuable the content was thought to be.  Matt suggests that user actions - tagging, blogging, rating, commenting - will help improve the "discoverabilty" of valuable information.  This makes sense in theory, but in practice "the trick now is for content creators to figure out how to get users to act on their stuff."  As Clare Hart says, "People are Busy" and are not often interested in taking action.