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Klout’s vision is to help people understand and be recognized for their influence. I was surprised a few months ago after a meeting with the Microsoft Bing leadership to learn how much our visions overlapped.

Microsoft and Klout both believe that the growth of the social web and the increasing importance of your online identity are fundamentally transforming the Internet, making it even more important to understand people, not just pages. Like Microsoft, Klout is a friend to all social networks. We both want to help everyone discover relevant people regardless of the specific networks on which they’re active. And we believe we’ve only just begun to tap into the knowledge and insights “search through people” will enable, now and into the future.

To build towards that future, I am proud to announce that Microsoft has made a strategic investment in Klout and that we have signed a multi-year agreement where Bing will become one of Klout’s most significant partners.

Starting today, you will notice that Bing is surfacing Klout Scores and influential topics for experts that are listed in the “People Who Know” section of its social sidebar. The Klout Score and topics are a helpful signal for understanding why you should trust recommendations from these experts. By clicking through to those users’ Klout profiles, you can see their best moments and gain additional context and insights into their expertise. It’s the “social resume” at work!

As part of our partnership, Bing will provide additional data to Klout. Search data has long been one of the missing signals in our effort to fully recognize a person’s influence. Just as Wikipedia articles can reflect a person’s real world influence, search results for a person signal accomplishments achieved beyond social networks and serve to influence others. There will be two data points from Bing that will initially be highlighted as part of Klout moments. Experts who appear in Bing’s “People Who Know” section of the sidebar will be recognized on Klout. Influencers who have a Wikipedia account associated with their Klout profile will also be rewarded for the frequency that they are searched on Bing.

Over the next few months, we will include this data in the Klout Score and continue to add signals generated from Bing searches. The coverage of people who have Bing data associated to their Klout account will continue to increase as Klout helps surface more influencers in Bing search.

This is a small step for Bing and Klout towards a very big idea: search through people. You will see a continuous flow of innovation from our joint development team focused on the discovery and recognition of influencers on both Bing and Klout. If you haven’t registered your profile on Klout, now is a great time to start building your influence and making it easier for others to discover your passions and expertise on Bing.

Stay tuned for more updates on our collaboration with Bing and other Microsoft initiatives.