2 more useful tools in your online publishing toolbelt

Image via CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

I started using 2 new online tools today - Zemanta and Klout.  Zemanta is considered a publishing assistant which works with your blogging tool (at least some of them) such as Blogger, Wordpress and (in the future) Tumblr.  One of the most interesting features is that if you type in the key idea into your editor, Zemanta will bring up related articles. For example, I typed the first line of this post which included Zemanta and Klout, and I am now seeing articles on these 2 products in my related articles section of the Zemanta toolbar.   Zemanta also helps you as a blogger by providing pictures, links and other related features of a blog.

Klout is a tool that helps an online writer (blogger, tweeter, etc) understand their "influence".  It basically provides a score that represents your influence.   Of course, they are aggressively looking to get as many people signed up to use Klout as possible, so they are pretty aggressive about tapping into your network.  Annoying, but we all know the drill.  One big issue I found with Klout was when I opened my preferences tab and found my login and password populated my first and last name field!  I changed it, but not clear how this happened and if I hadn't gone into preferences would it have been published in some way?

I see a need for both of these tools as a blogger and tweeter, so bring on the features!