Klout.com shows us how simplistic analysis of user’s social graphs can be manipulated for a company’s own benefit. Klout.com appointed itself as judge and jury of people’s online graph. The trouble is, they’re too concerned with using their own klout with naïve Web users to monetize their service in a way that makes their objectivity a joke.
Witness, for example, the fact that they’re letting Klout.com users give thumbs up to people such that their social media ranking jumps far more than if positive signals were measured from that same person’s activity on an actual social network. There is a huge, artificial incentive to their service, since you can generate credibility for your friends by logging into their site to give your praise; versus doing it on established Social website like Twitter and Facebook.
