Despite their massive popularity with users, social networks haven't been able to gain much traction with advertisers. But a new patent from Google could change all that.

According to a story in BusinessWeek, Google has applied for a patent that essentially ranks the value of a user on a social network. A user's score would rank them based on a variety of factors to determine their influence.

That rank isn't that far off from Google's PageRank strategy that made the company a search giant. While Google declined to comment on the particulars, it's likely that such a technology would be used to help advertisers pinpoint their messaging.

If the technology is actually there, it could be a big win for Google and MySpace, which has an advertising deal in place with the search giant.