What is PeekScore?: PeekScore is a rank from 1 to 10, assigned to every person. The higher someone’s score, the “more important” they are on the web. In calculating your PeekScore and updating it often, PeekYou takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to; your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news. For first time visitors a more in-depth explanation of what the PeekScore is, and how to increase your own, can be found by clicking through here.
In 1927, Time Magazine selected transatlantic aviator Charles Lindbergh as their first ever “Man of the Year” (a distinction later made less blatantly politically wrong and renamed “Person of the Year”). Since then they have annually selected a person – or sometimes an object, concept, or group of people – that they believe “for better or for worse” has had the greatest impact on that year’s events. From Martin Luther King, Jr. to Adolph Hitler, from Mark Zuckerberg to Pope John Paul II to the “The Middle Americans” their selections have run the gamut from the clearly deserved to the esoteric, and have frequently been the stuff of controversy. With yet another year upon this planet coming to a close, and another “Person of the Year” issue inevitably upon us, it seemed a good idea to put Time’s short-list of this year’s “hopefuls” (click highlighted link to see) to the PeekScore test.
The non-human and/or non-specific human nominees deserve a mention: The Higgs Boson, The Mars Rover, and Undocumented Immigrants. They are not reflected in the list below, as PeekYou doesn’t yet – and indeed may never – index particles or unmanned space vehicles, and the last is of course a large group of individuals (who, it could be noted, may by their very nature never find their way to PeekYou).
This is not a measurement of the likelihood of any one of these people being selected by Time’s editorial staff (an announcement which is to be made only a couple of days from when we’re posting this), nor is it a measurement of their greatness, nor even their fame and/or infamy in the world at large. This is a look at the degrees to which each of these men and women are impactful here in cyberspace. It is, if you will, a look at their digital footprints; a concept you will find explained in brief above, and more in depth by clicking through here.
What were some of your favorite stories from this year? Any 2012 luminaries we overlooked? Let us know in the comments.
| Rank | Picture | Name | Served | PeekScore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 |
Barack Obama | Newly re-elected President of the United States | 10.00 / 10.00 |
| 2 |
|
Hillary Clinton | U.S. Secretary of State | 10.00 / 10.00 |
| 3 |
|
Mitt Romney | 2012 GOP candidate for president | 10.00 / 10.00 |
| 4 |
|
Bill Clinton | Former President of the United States | 9.62 / 10.00 |
| 5 |
|
Paul Ryan | 2012 GOP candidate for vice president | 9.55 / 10.00 |
| 6 |
|
Jay-Z | Mega-successful rapper and entrepreneur | 9.38 / 10.00 |
| 7 |
|
Bashar al-Assad | President of Syria | 9.32 / 10.00 |
| 8 |
|
E.L. James | Author of Fifty Shades of Grey | 9.30 / 10.00 |
| 9 |
|
Chris Christie | New Jersey governor who made headlines for his open praise of the president, on the eve of election day, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy | 9.21 / 10.00 |
| 10 |
|
Michael Phelps | Olympic swimmer, and as of 2012 the most decorated Olympian of all time | 9.16 / 10.00 |
| 11 |
|
Jon Stewart | Host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show | 9.03 / 10.00 |
| 12 |
|
Felix Baumgartner | Set the world record for skydiving an estimated 39 kilometres, breaking the speed of sound while doing so, on October 14, 2012 | 8.97 / 10.00 |
| 13 |
|
Benjamin Netanyahu | Prime Minister of Israel | 8.87 / 10.00 |
| 14 |
|
Michael Bloomberg | New York City mayor | 8.85 / 10.00 |
| 15 |
|
Joe Biden | Vice President of the United States | 8.83 / 10.00 |
| 16 |
|
Stephen Colbert | Host of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report | 8.80 / 10.00 |
| 17 |
|
John Roberts | Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court | 8.77 / 10.00 |
| 18 |
|
Kim Jong Un | Supreme Leader of North Korea | 8.71 / 10.00 |
| 19 |
|
Tim Cook | CEO of Apple, Inc. | 8.68 / 10.00 |
| 20 |
|
Karl Rove | American political consultant and policy advisor | 8.54 / 10.00 |
| 21 |
|
Psy | Korean rapper responsible for “Gangnam Style,” the most viewed YouTube video of all time | 8.53 / 10.00 |
| 22 |
|
Mario Draghi | President of the European Central Bank | 8.28 / 10.00 |
| 23 |
|
Ai Weiwei | Chinese contemporary artist | 8.23 / 10.00 |
| 24 |
|
Thein Sein | President of Myanmar | 8.19 / 10.00 |
| 25 |
|
Mohamed Morsi | President of Egypt | 8.14 / 10.00 |
| 26 |
|
Sandra Fluke | Women’s rights activist | 8.13 / 10.00 |
| 27 |
|
Marissa Mayer | CEO of Yahoo! | 8.11 / 10.00 |
| 28 |
|
Mo Farah | Track and Field athlete and Olympic gold medalist | 8.11 / 10.00 |
| 29 |
|
Roger Goodell | Commissioner of the National Football League | 8.10 / 10.00 |
| 30 |
|
Sheldon Adelson | CEO, Las Vegas Sands Corporation | 8.04 / 10.00 |
| 31 |
|
Malala Yousafzai | 15 year old Pakistani anti-Taliban activist and blogger, shot by the Taliban in October | 8.03 / 10.00 |
| 32 |
|
Gabby Douglas | Olympic gold medalist, and the first African-American in Olympic history to become the individual all-around gymnastics champion | 8.02 / 10.00 |
| 33 |
|
Xi Jinping | Leader of the Communist Party of China | 7.83 / 10.00 |
| 34 |
|
Bo Xilai | Disgraced Chinese former politician | 7.82 / 10.00 |
| 35 |
|
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (of Pussy Riot) | Russian political activist, and member of punk rock collective Pussy Riot | 7.81 / 10.00 |
| 36 |
|
Aung San Suu Kyi | Chairperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma | 7.49 / 10.00 |