A San Francisco-based social networking outfit has sat down with a  complicated series of algorithms, the system adds up a person's tweets, likes, pings, LinkedIn connections, Google mentions, status updates and other social media musings to find out what the world thinks is important.

Sadly what  Klout indicates, is that we are as shallow as a piece of paper and think that pop beat combo artist Justin Bieber is more important than the US president. Klout's top 20 put Bieber on top 10 spots ahead of Barack Obama at 88, who also trails the Dalai Lama and Lady Gaga.

Klout's technology  to identify who is influential on different topics has already attracted serious interest from companies looking for online impact. Disney used Klout to identify social media types who were then invited to sneak previews of Tangled. Vegas hotels are using it to identify people it wants to give an upgrade.

However, it depends on your Twitter profile, which is problematic for those who don't use it.