The Klout API was released in 2009, before the website was available to the public, but since that time Klout has optimized its response time, documentation and terms of service to make the API more viable for developers.

The social influence company's latest push on its API coincides with a road tour of conferences and hackathons the company plans on attending to bolster the use and inclusion of the API in different use-cases.

"I envision a future where Facebook app developers will be able to leverage Klout scores in their apps," Tyler Singletary, Klout developer evangelist, tells LAUNCH via email. "Foursquare developers teaming up with brick and mortar locations. Music and fashion bloggers on Tumblr being able to turn their influence into potential revenue. There's so many possibilities here, and we really want to inspire the business and developer community to embrace this and innovate."

Klout recently attended the ReCommerce Day (retail API) hackathon where Rahim Sonawalla incorporated Klout with Today's Threads, a site that lets bloggers tag what they are wearing and link the items to vendors. Those with better amplification probability -- one of Klout's sub-measurements -- can earn higher commissions on sales from affiliate sites.

"I think once Klout starts allowing look-ups based on more than Twitter (like e-mail), we'll see more applications outside of retail," Rahim tells LAUNCH via email. "There are other interesting areas, like matchmaking based on influential topics. For example, finding a language tutor that really knows Japanese."

Last month, Klout surveyed to developers to find out what they would like to see out of the Klout API.

"We're hoping to address some of the developer wishlist we've been hearing about," Tyler says. "So our updates will hopefully appeal to a wider set of developers, a wider set of use-cases. We'd really like to see more integrations in the consumer-facing side of the world."

The more people Klout measures, the more valuable their data set becomes, Tyler noted, nodding to the company's recent rating of 100M total users [ see our story ].

CONTACTS

Klout API
Website: http://developer.klout.com/
Twitter: @KloutAPI

Tyler Singletary
Twitter: @harmophone

Rahim Sonawalla
Google+: https://plus.google.com/108123554297520570165
Twitter: @rahims