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"The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.\nName: Photorank.me\nQuick Pitch: Photorank.me aims to help people determine their influence as social photographers.\nGenius Idea: Klout for photo-sharing.\n\nModern web and mobile users have become perpetual photo-sharers. Perhaps, then, it should follow that this social media side dish behavior (that we all seem to enjoy) demands its own ranking and influence system. \nNew site Photorank, a product of crowdsourcing photo startup Olapic, puts this theory to the test. It measures photo-sharers' activities across Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instragram and Picplz to spit out an influence score \u2014 \u00E0 la Klout, but specifically focused on photo-sharing. \nSimply grant Photorank access to your photo accounts to see how your digital shots stack up against your friends or the greater photo-sharing community at large. \nPhotorank scores range from 0 to 100 and place a strong emphasis on your activity in the past 21 days. Reactions to your photos, such as \"likes\", favorites and comments, will affect your overall score. The final score is a summation of your reach, the frequency of your photo-sharing activities and the quality of the photos you share.\n\n\n\n\nPhotorank, explains Olapic co-founder Luis Sanz, is a consumer spin on an algorithm the New York-based startup first built to rank the user-generated photos being submitted to client sites. \n\"At Olapic.com, we have to deal with large amount of user generated photos, and we found that being able to identify the best pictures was really important to create a good user experience,\" Sanz says. \"We also found that the 'reputation' of the people uploading the pictures was the best proxy to identify them, and that\u2019s how we started developing an algorithm to measure it.\"\n\"We were talking about it with a couple of friends that are into photography and they asked us to 'photorank' them, and they loved the idea,\" he explains. \"After that, we developed a site where everyone can link their photo-sharing accounts and get their own photorank.\"\nThe problem, as the startup sees it, is that with so many photos being uploaded to the web everyday, it's hard for folks to find the best pictures and the most influential photographers. \nPhotorank, in theory, will help those fascinated with photography (businesses and consumers alike) track down the top photographers with online influence. Plus, with the growing popularity of Instagram and its top iPhoneographers, businesses might have an interest in using marketing campaigns or special promotions to target popular photogs \u2014 just as many companies are starting to do with Klout scores.\nStill, as a user, Photorank is limited in scope and purpose. You can connect your photo accounts and see how you rank, but that's about it. Only when a Photorank user can take his score and do something with it elsewhere on the web (or in the offline world) will the measurement take on additional meaning.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, ODV\nSeries Supported by Microsoft BizSpark\n\n\nThe Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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