Bing Search Data to Influence Klout Score

By Gilbert Falso :: 10:09 PM

Users who subscribe to Klout, the online service for measuring social media influence, will soon have two new sources of data that influence their score – Microsoft’s Bing search engine, and Facebook’s Instagram photo sharing service.

The two networks will now provide data to Klout’s algorithm, which assigns users a number from 1 to 100 to show how influential they are in the online world.

Last fall, Microsoft made an investment in Klout, but at the time, it wasn’t clear how the two companies were going to work together strategically. With this recent announcement, we have a more clear picture of what the partnership will bring.

Although Bing influence will not immediately reflect in a user’s Klout score, the data will be gathered, and rolled into the service in the near future. “Bing search data will start becoming integrated into Klout’s algorithm, and search results will eventually factor into each user’s Klout Score,” said a post on Klout’s blog.

In 2011, Klout allowed users to link their Instagram and Klout accounts, and now Instagram data will also be factored into Klout scores going forward.