Published: 2012-08-18 16:23:05
Klout will have a constant, ongoing battle in fighting gaming. But that’s ok. Google is in a constant fight defending the integrity of PageRank, too. And yet we find it interesting. Klout is very much like a PageRank for people and things. And it can be much more useful than just helping companies hand out perks.
First, there’s a lot of data being collected and processed by Klout. A staggering amount of data about people and things from a wide variety of social services. No one else is doing this. The end Klout scores are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, on what this company can eventually do with all that data.
Second, Klout’s head is in the right place. Here’s a snippet from an email exchange I had with Fernandez not long after my “Why?” post:
In the end, my goal is to build a product that goes beyond the gimmicks and drives real value for everyone. I believe that every person who creates content online has influence to some group of people and on some topic. Everyone also wants to feel listened to and interesting and I think we can do this in a way that empowers people to become better, more effective, online citizens.
Klout’s goals are sort of the opposite of what I first presumed. They’re encouraging constructive online behavior, and they’re gathering and processing tons and tons of data along the way.
to merging our Insight into the Web
