This time last year, I was obsessing over my Klout score (https://wsm.co/KZC3z4), the Web-based measurement service that gauged the "influence" of people in the social sphere of the 'Net.
Klout has managed to stay in the news somewhat, even though my Klout score continues to slide ever downward, giving its entire ranking system a makeover in mid-Aug. 2012 and making an entrance into the Q&A industry in May of this year (2013).
The service is apparently expanding the sources it uses to calculate Klout score as announced in a new blog post this week. Klout has officially annnounced the integration of Bing search results into the Klout score.
"Bing search prevalence - the number of times you are searched for on Bing - will now contribute directly to your Klout Score. We think this is exciting because we believe search is one of the most direct indicators of real world influence and serves as a bridge between offline and online influence."
What Klout has done is essentially move beyond social indicators alone as proof of influence. Klout uses the Warren Buffet example. Buffet has a Twitter profile but there are only a handful of tweets. Buffet's Bing prevalence however is high which would naturally indicate his far more influential status.