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Final Note

Klout changes its algorithm

Kai Ryssdal Aug 15, 2012
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Final Note

Klout changes its algorithm

Kai Ryssdal Aug 15, 2012
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This final note today, in which social media gets real.

Maybe you’ve heard of Klout. It purports to tell you how much influence you have online using some magical mystery algorithm with 400 variables, boiling it all down into a single score between 1 and 100. There are skeptics, you might rightly guess. Yours truly included. President Obama scored a 94. Justin Bieber had a 100.

Well, the good news is they changed their algorithm today. Bieber’s at 92, Obama’s up to 99.

Here’s the best part. The new algorithm? Uses Wikipedia.

And no, I have no idea what my Klout is.

Speaking of Klout and social media, we heard from quite a few of you on our conversation yesterday about a listener who paid her kid $20 to read “The Odyssey.” A lot of you? Not fans of the approach.

A typical response? “Bottom line: read with your kids, don’t pay them to read. It’s a better investment.”

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