Expect QDOS (taken from ‘kudos’) to be on the lips of many over the next year. QDOS is a method to monitor and measure your own Internet popularity and, in the longer run, help you secure your online persona from identity theft.

Currently running in Beta in the UK, QDOS is planning to launch in North America in this first quarter of 2008. So how does QDOS calculate Internet status?

Up until now there has been no way to measure digital presence, to see where you fit in to the online world. At Garlik, we’ve analysed the digital profiles of the nation and have made available a QDOS score for every UK adult . Your QDOS score is made up of 4 different components:

Popularity
Who you know and the extent of your online network.

Impact
How much people listen to what you say online.

Activity
What you do online e.g. shop, chat, blog.

Individuality
How easy you are to find online according to your name, your age etc

I expect QDOS will do very well, if not absurdly well in North America. As Al Pacino once said “vanity is my favorite sin”. This is obvious in nearly every corner of social media networking… many people just want to look like they have more friends and show off their accomplishments so this new service just fits perfectly. Don’t get me wrong, I am not judging, but I don’t think there is anywhere more vain than North America which is why I have high expectations for this company. It also helps that one of their board members happens to be the inventor of the World Wide Web… Tim Berners-Lee.

Aside from the enjoyment of monitoring your online identity and watching it morph in real time QDOS offers a much needed element of security that will really appeal to Internet users the world over… protection from identity theft. QDOS is relatively new but I did find an interview with Tom Ilube, CEO of QDOS that explains how the company will help its clients protect their identity:

“In the digital world, there is information that other people, companies or even the Government makes available about each of us which we are often not aware of, including government database information such as UK births, deaths and marriages. In fact, you could say there is ‘background digital noise’ about all of us.”

“The key to tackling data abuse is for consumers to make themselves ‘hard targets’ and the purpose of QDOS is to wake people up en masse to the fact that their identity is worth protecting. Once consumers start to recognise this fact in a major way, it will become harder for fraudsters to abuse their data.”

So what will all of this cost to you? Claiming your name and manually monitoring your online identity will be free but QDOS will be providing a $6/month identity monitoring service. The service will provide a monthly “personal identity statement” that highlights any weaknesses in your online identity security. (source: Business Week)

Do you want to get in early and claim your name? QDOS is in Beta but it is accepting requests for registration now.