Klout Adds Blogger, Flickr, Instagram, Last.fm & Tumblr

 by Brian Anthony Hernandez

Klout just doubled the number of services it measures to determine your online influence, adding Blogger, Flickr, Instagram, Last.fm and Tumblr to its scoring system.

The San Francisco-based startup, which is celebrating its three-year anniversary today, originally only took Twitteractivity into consideration. Two years later, Klout addedFacebook.

But in June, it began factoring in LinkedIn. And within the past month, it integrated Foursquare and YouTube to its algorithm.

“The networks we launched today were chosen to give the Klout score a more holistic view of influence,” Klout CEO Joe Fernandez told Mashable. “By adding blogging, photos and music to the interactions that we are already measuring we are moving closer to our goal of providing a complete picture of your influence.”

Klout will calculate your influence on these new networks based on the ways you drive actions among your online friends, followers or subscribers.

“On Last.fm the amount of activity a user or listener generates on their profile will almost certainly be a factor,” Fernandez said. “Tumblr is a great example where reblogs and love are clear signals of influence, andInstagram provides likes and comments.”

Klout also plans to add more services such as Google+: “We are eagerly anticipating them launching their API. As soon as they make the data available we will be ready to add it to the Klout score,” he said.

If you log onto Klout, you’ll notice your dashboard now features grayed-out icons for the five newly-integrated services. Click on the icons to have Klout figure in your activity on those services into your overall Klout score.

“Today is actually the three-year anniversary of Klout and we wanted to show off the power of the platform we have built here,” Fernandez said. “The fact that we have launched eight other services — with five today — in the last three months is a testament to the hard work our team has done building a platform that can easily ingest any signal of influence.”

Aside from adding more services in just a few months, Klout also recently unveiled a +K button that allows you to give other users a +K on topics you think they influence. And brands have started offering perks to people with high Klout scores.

Are you excited or bummed that Klout added Blogger, Flickr, Instagram, Last.fm and Tumblr?

Create Albums From Instagram, Twitter & Facebook Photos With Pictarine

 by Jennifer Van Grove

The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Pictarine

Quick Pitch: Pictarine is a website that lets you enjoy and share all your photos in one place.

Genius Idea: Mix and match photos from different services to create shareable albums.

---

Today’s digital photo sharer snaps and posts shots to myriad social sites and photo applications. Those photos often end up haphazardly scattered across web and mobile sites and devices.

Paris-based startup Pictarine gives modern photo sharers a way to clean up the photo chaos and bring together all of their shots littered across web and mobile for viewing, sharing or one-click download.

CEO and co-founder Guillaume Martin says Pictarine was envisioned after a weekend getaway with his partner. “Both of us took photos, but we couldn’t share them in an easy way,” he says. “So, the first idea was to share Flickr photos with other friends, like Facebook friends.”

An early version of Pictarine first offered users a simple way to collect and share all their photos fromFacebook, Flickr, Picasa and the desktop. Today, Pictarine now includes Instagram and Twitter — TwitPic, Yfrog, Lockerz and Twitter Photos included — integration. These new features where released Tuesday to further round out its online photo repository.

After first-time users authenticate each of their photo site accounts, Pictarine collects their photos, and auto-sorts them into albums by service, while also maintaining third-party site album structure. The service even grants users viewing access to their Facebook friends’ photos, Instagram friends’ photos and Flickr friends’ photos, making Pictarine a window to nearly all of the photos the users’ friends are posting to the web.

Pictarine’s most fetching feature is its highly malleable virtual photo album. With Zests, as they’re called, you can construct albums from your Instagram, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa and desktop photos, as well as mix in photos from friends’ albums. You can then choose to share Zests with Facebook friends, Google contact groups and email contacts either publicly or privately.

Founded two years ago, Pictarine has been quietly available to the public since May of this year and has more than 3,000 users. The bootstrapped startup hopes to raise funding to support development of mobile applications.

The Man Who Hunted Bin Laden Exposed in White House Flickr Photos

 by Jennifer Van Grove

“C.I.A. John,” the AP-profiled analyst-of-mystery responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden for more than a decade, has been spotted in a photo posted to the White House’s Flickr account.

The Observer now claims to have used the photo to identify John — John is his middle name — though it has yet to publish his full name. In exchange for keeping mum, The Observer reporter Aaron Gell was granted off-the-record conversations with John’s associates.

“An acquaintance volunteered that he recognized the man in the photo and proceeded to put a name to the face,” Gell writes of the identification. “A few web searches turned up details of the man’s personal life. In college, he’d played basketball. No superstar by any means — he was mostly a practice player — he’d been aggressive enough to catch the eye of the team’s coach, who later spoke glowingly of John’s unusual shooting style.”

The photo at the center of the accidental reveal is one of the now famous behind-the-scenes Situation Room photos the White House uploaded to Flickr in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden’s death.

“C.I.A. John” makes an appearance in two of these photos, one clearly depicts the proclaimed hero standing tall in the back of the room, behind Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta, with his eyes shut as President Obama addresses members of the national security team on May 1, 2011.

How do we know that this is, in fact, “C.I.A. John”, the man the Associated Press calls the most important person in the hunt for bin Laden? As The Observer notes, “the story also dangled a more tantalizing clue.”

That clue actually comes in the second paragraph of the piece. “Hidden from view, standing just outside the frame of that now-famous photograph was a career CIA analyst,” the AP reveals.

After the AP piece was published on Tuesday, July 5, Cryptome’s John Young took just nine hours to locate John in the photos.

“He did it with the sort of simple deductive reasoning that wouldn’t be out of place in a Miss Marple novel,” Gell writes. “It seems that although the man’s face was cropped out of the famous Situation Room photo, his pale yellow necktie was not. He also appeared to be unusually tall. The White House, as part of an all-out effort to trumpet its signature intelligence triumph, had released a number of photos on that day to media outlets around the world. Mr. Young simply checked the administration’s Flickr feed for shots of a man with the same build and taste in neckwear.”

Now, John’s appearance in the official press photos is raising questions as to whether the White House intended its hero to be publicly celebrated after all. Some, like Young, believe this incident to be intentional, while others will find this to be an epic blunder of an administration that has been perhaps too avant garde in its approach to social media.

---

The White House Situation Room Flickr Photos

---

View As Slideshow »

Obama in the Situation Room

President Barack Obama makes a point during one in a series of meetings in the Situation Room of the White House discussing the mission against Osama bin Laden, May 1, 2011. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon is pictured at right. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

---

Obama in the Situation Room

President Barack Obama listens during one in a series of meetings discussing the mission against Osama bin Laden, in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

---

Preparing to Address the Nation

President Barack Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office before making a statement to the media about the mission against Osama bin Laden, May 1, 2011. The President made a series of calls, including to Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and others, to inform them of the successful mission. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

---

Preparing to Address the Nation

President Barack Obama edits his remarks in the Oval Office prior to making a televised statement detailing the mission against Osama bin Laden, May 1, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

---

Obama and Staff in the Situation Room

President Barack Obama talks with members of the national security team at the conclusion of one in a series of meetings discussing the mission against Osama bin Laden, in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

---

Obama and Staff in the Situation Room

Staffers get a key update on the progress of the bin Laden compound raid. A confidential document has been pixelated in the foreground.

---