PeopleRank is not a new term with Google's PageRank well-known around the internet. It's said Google was also patenting the PeopleRank technology trying to make the social network profitable.

The term was occured to me again when I noticed days before Google has a link to show the social circle and social content each Google user has.
google.com/s2/search/social

According to the introduction, it's designated for Google's Social Search, "to help you discover relevant publicly-accessible content from your social circle, a set of online friends and contacts. The idea is that content from your friends and social contacts is often more relevant to you than content from strangers."

Social search is helpful,but the data behind that is more powerful. Just ask who is the most influenced user on the Internet, Google can now tell you exactly based on the numbers of Direct connections and Secondary connections. Google may even tell you who is the most influenced user on specific field, based on the profile information (IT,music,art,etc.)in your social content.

Further reading on Social Search: