Watch out Quora; Klout is coming. The popular social influence tool, Klout, is launching a new product that is geared to help provide human answers from the Web’s top influencers – ‘Klout Experts.’ This product will allow users to answer questions in 300 character responses on topics that they are deemed to be influential in.
As of today, 15% of Klout users will have access to the Klout Experts questions as they will be rolled out to those influential in travel, movies, music, cooking and technology. Answering questions will have a direct contribution on one’s Klout score.
A series of 5 questions will be asked to all Klout users in an “on-boarding” experience to pre-quality users. After this on-boarding session, specific questions will be asked based around influence levels. Sample questions could include “What is the best food processor on the market?” or “What is the best Nikon lens?” Much like Quora, Klout Experts pages will aggregate answers that can be socially shared by users and indexed by search engines.
Additional benefits of this feature include direct integration with Bing search. Selected queries will feature in-line responses directly in Bing’s main search pane, not the lesser-viewed social sidebar. These answers will provide much exposure and visibility as the Klout results will link directly to the author’s main Klout profile.
Unlike Quora, where specific answers are voted up, value can be assigned to specific Klout profiles. With all of the social influence data available to Klout, specific data around profile importance can be derived and used to estimate what the best answers may be. Each answer from a Klout Expert will also have a value (in +K endorsements) along with shares and overall views.
Here are a few examples of live answer pages:
Klout Experts is officially launching today, and full rollout is expected in “weeks, not months.” For more information, see our article on Search Engine Land about the Bing/Klout Experts integration or the official Klout post.
Comments