Microsoft has announced a partnership with social ranking site Klout, in a deal that will see Klout's data on influential users integrated into Microsoft's search engine Bing.

Search and influence

Microsoft released the news on Bing's blog earlier today, explaining the partnership will help customers connect with the right experts on the topics they're searching for.

While Bing already uses data from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter in its search results, when users now enter a Bing search query (with the Social Search Feature turned on) they will see a person's Klout score.

Additionally, experts who appear in Bing's “People You May Know” panel are now attributed a Klout score.

On the other side of the coin, Klout will now use Bing search queries as a measure when assessing a users' Klout score. 

Bing branches out

This partnership is the latest in a series of moves by Microsoft to boost Bing, which has struggled since its launch last year.

Earlier this year Microsoft gave Bing a complete redesign, and recently challenged users to judge whether Bing beat Google in a blind seach test. 

While the partnership may not mean Bing catches up to Google anytime soon, it does means that users and brands may want to look at increasing their Klout score when it comes to search. 

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