Klout logoI’ve recently succumbed to peer pressure and registered myself in the vanity game called Klout.
What it does is basically tell you how “influential” you are across several different social networking channels (mainly Twitter and Facebook) and how far your “reach” is.

I have to admit, it is kind of fun to see your own scores progress over the weeks. I couldn’t say if this is actually a deterministic way to tell if somebody is a person you should listen to (at least for the topics he’s listed as influencer on Klout), or if this is just another way beyond follower-/friends-counts to stroke ones ego, but it provides some nice insights about the topics you converse about online.

Klout features two more interesting things I’d like to point out:

  • Topics: Pages about different topics, who talks about them and who are the top influencers in that field.
  • Perks: Depending on your score, you can get gifts or discounts from numerous companies around the world. Now that’s what I call motivation to communicate online 🙂

  • Google released an Apache module that auto tunes performance
    Google has announced that they are launching a module for the Apache HTTP server called mod_pagespeed, that will automatically tune several properties to optimize page load speed. I haven’t tried it out yet, but will definitely do so.
    Amongst other things, mod_pagespeed will:

    • recompress images
    • modify cache lifetime for static elements
    • make changes to pages built by CMS

    I don’t know if I’ll see a great performance on this server, as I already took care of a lot of speed improvements myself, but this module is a great way to implement common best-practices without having to dig into Apache’s configuration too much.
    Read more and download the module on the Page Speed Google Code website.

  • Facebook Mobile Announcements
    Just a short summary of what Facebook announced yesterday, there’s already tons of coverage out there:

    • Facebook for iPhone updated (as I hoped in my tweet just minutes before the event started).
    • Facebook for Android updated.
    • Single Sign-On for mobile platforms.
      So you don’t have to deal with entering your password in every app that uses Facebook connect.
    • Facebook Places API Update. Full read and write access for third parties.
    • Deals. This sounds kind of like Groupon mixed with Foursquare.
      Could be very interesting, once it reaches the critical mass of user adoption.
    • No dedicated iPad App in the near future.
      Although I’ve read about speculations of a HTML5 based website/app that could offer the same experience on multiple tablet based platforms.

  • Myspace Accused Of Ripping Off Stealth Startup Pinterest
    This morning?Pinterest co-founders Ben Silberman, Paul Sciarra and Yashwanth Nelapati woke up to a barrage of?tweets,?So @myspace has completely ripped off @pinterest. It really pisses me off when an old, tired hack tries to undermine hardworking inovators. [sic]?Myspace revealed its new redesign last night and Pinterest users quickly picked up on the similarities between the two site aesthetics, leading to an?intense Twitter debate.
  • Sencha Takes On Flash With HTML5 Animator
    Sencha is making a big bet on HTML5. The company, which was formerly known as Ext JS, raised a hefty?$14 million round led by Sequoia Capital in June. Since then it has been perfecting its HTML5 framework Sencha Touch a framework that lets you build mobile web apps for iOS and Android that feel?almost native and are also cross-platform. And today, the company is adding another big addition to its product suite:?Sencha Animator.
  • Flickr takes a Twitter cue; introduces suggested friends and Facebook contacts
    Given that, from the start, Flickr was intended to be a social photo sharing platform, the latest move from the company comes as no surprise.
    According to the?Flickr blog, the site is introducing a People You May Know feature.
  • Apple holding “secret summit” with select iOS devs next week
    Business Insider is reporting that Apple is set to hold a?secret iOS developer summit next week. The event apparently begins next Tuesday and will run for three days. While Business Insider doesn’t have any firm details yet, they speculate that the purpose of the summit is to improve the quality of apps on iOS devices in order to stave off competition from Google’s Android App Store.
  • Google makes some design changes to Gmail in mobile Safari
    Googles Interface Design ChangesThe first change is a that scrolling now mimics the speed of your swiping on the screen, making longer messages easier to read through. The second change is that the toolbars within Gmail are now locked while you scroll (they used to appear after you were finished scrolling).