Klout Rates More Than 100M People -- Whether They Know It or Not

Klout, which measures social influence through individuals' social media accounts, has rated more than 100M people.

Klout measures social influence in up to 10 different networks -- mainly Twitter but also Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare. Klout plans to add more networks, including Google+ when the API becomes available.

But of the 100M people who have been given Klout scores, how many of them actually know they have one?

"Klout collects public data in order to accurately measure influence. Users can control the data available to Klout by changing the privacy settings on individual networks. Klout will never access your private data unless we have explicit permission...

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Facebook Tests Summary Notifications to Cut Down on Email Overload, Automatically Opts-In Testers

[ Image of new summary notifications Facebook included with its announcement. ]

To cut back on the crush of alert emails some Facebook members receive, Facebook is testing summary notifications.

"We're testing a feature for people who are very active on Facebook and receive lots of email notifications from us. We'll provide a new summary email and turn off most individual email notifications," reads a post on Facebook's official page, first reported by Inside Facebook.

Users who are included in the program will automatically be switched to the notification summary format...

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Facebook for Android Update: Fixes Bugs and Improves Privacy Controls

[ Photo courtesy of Srivatsan Sridhar. ]

An updated Facebook for Android app fixes some crash and performance issues and adds an improved sharing tool to match privacy options on the website and the ability to tag friends and places in photo posts.

Version 1.7 also includes an updated UI, photo browsing with swiping capabilities and support for Honeycomb, the Android OS for tablets. The last update, on July 14, featured more pages support and the ability to tag pages in updates using an "@" before the name.

Android users, long dissatisfied with the Facebook Android app, are...

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Google Offers Sponsors Local Food Events, Borrows Groupon and LivingSocial Marketing Strategy

Google Offers, now available in nine cities, is following other daily deal sites' marketing strategies by sponsoring food festivals that feature local restaurants. 

   

So far, the events have been pretty small. In August, Google Offers sponsored the Austin City Limits Festival pre-party in downtown Austin.  Its next event is the Spice of Life Festival, which celebrates North Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto district, where it will launch a full week of deals from restaurants in the Gourmet Ghetto.

"We're sponsoring such local events as the Spice of Life Festival and ACL to directly engage with the local communities where Google Offers is available and to drive awareness for the service in that area," a Google spokesperson tells LAUNCH via email. 

In February 2011, Groupon sponsored the massive...

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The 12 Most Awesome iPad Accessories (Spot the Fake)

[ Photo courtesy of Smashed Peas and Carrots ] 

Below are the 12 coolest iPad accessories LAUNCH editors found using Pinterest, an online virtual pinboard where users share products and things found on the web.    

But one of these is a fake -- can you spot it? Answer at the bottom.

1. The iVictrola: Magnavox phonograph horn that houses the iPad to acoustically amplify the sound without any need for electricity.$895.

 

2. Nest iPad Stand: Provides a compact solution to mount the iPad and also hold small items such as keys, USB flash drivers and coins. Starting at $30.  

3. The Movie Mount for iPad 2 lets moviemakers attach the device to a tripod for stability, hook up a microphone, use tele- and wide angle lenses and attach lighting. $70. 

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