Blind Five Year Old:  “The idea behind AuthorRank is that your reputation as a content creator will influence the ranking of search results. Here’s the specific language 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.

Agent? Agent is Google-speak for an author. This excerpt states that verified content by an author will be graded and it is that grade that influences the rank of content in search results. . . . AuthorRank won’t replace PageRank it’ll just make it more accurate. This is one of the more powerful applications of AuthorRank. In essence, Google identifies authors who can help curate the link graph.”

See also “How to Prepare for Author Rank and Get the Jump on Google.”

LawWebMarketing.com:  “Google Authorship gives you the ability to identify yourself as the writer of Web content, as well as to boost your law firm’s marketing efforts and online presence. . . . One of the many benefits of a Google+ profile is the Google Authorship capability; with Google Authorship, you can claim all the content you create – no matter where it is published. Google Authorship markup works by connecting the pages where your content is published back to your Google+ profile.”