A new service is being launched by social media analyst industry leader PeopleBrowsr intended to compete with other influence-metric social media services like Klout—in fact, it looks exactly like a competitor directly to Klout. Just with a different algorithm and metric tracking system. Now, it’s been long argued that influence-guessing services like Klout are more about vanity than they are about really identifying reach and influence; but that hasn’t stopped them from receiving huge intake during investment rounds.

This revolutionary new influence-metric is called Kred and PeopleBrowsr says that it will be a fully transparent system of identifying and quantifying influence. The open invitation period starts October 6, 2011; but you can get into the docket early by posting a Tweet @PeopleBrowsr asking for access. The website states that it receives over 10,000 requests a day so it might take a while for the invitation to get back to you once they start.

“Kred is built on the fundamental belief that we are all influential somewhere,” said PeopleBrowsr CEO Jodee Rich. “Kred asserts the importance of trust and sharing in human relationships. By allowing individuals to be recognized as influential about their passions, Kred shifts the attention on social networks from celebrities back to the true heart of human relationships–connections with trusted friends and subject matter experts.”

After all, we know how social media gets around. Recently satirical news site The Onion managed to cause a little bit of a scare by posting what seemed to be actual news. Media like Twitter and Facebook provide bite-sized eyeblinks into sometimes partially-formed thoughts as people develop their ideas and fling them out. This sort of behavior lends itself rapidly to Big Data mining, even such that it’s a fertile ground for a whole new type of expert scientist.

In a strange sort of off-method, Kred is one-upping Klout by permitting users to add “real life” honors to their Kred profiles—such as sports awards, academic honors, club members, or even frequent flyer status. In a lot of ways this feels a great deal more likely something Facebook would have than an influence-metric service. It leans heavily towards the vanity and far away from the big data analysis of actual influence (whatever that might mean in the social media sphere.)

However, in what might be a move that could be a tip-of-the-hat to what Big Data could mean for smart agents: Kred will attempt to judge the influence of a person on their audience and their region of expertise and offer suggestions on what might make fresh content. This sidebar means that whatever algorithm that Kred decides on will actively influence how their users choose to engage their own audiences—perhaps by looking at what other people are tweeting about, what’s trending, or maybe even recent news?

It’s difficult to tell right now; but according to PeopleBrowsr, the Kred algorithm’s data will be fully transparent and accessible via an API, which means that once it’s launched we’ll have insight into what makes it tick.

Watch SiliconANGLE for a full review once Kred goes into full swing and we have access to those levers and buttons.