LinkedIn is really good
After I accepted a colleague’s invitation to join his network today, LinkedIn gave me a list of ten other people I might know. Historically, those lists have been utterly useless for me — “other people who have worked at Self Employed”, etc.
Today, amazingly, 10 out of 10 were people I knew personally. Quite a few of them were non-obvious - people I’d met at conferences, or had specific business communications with. Most of them were people I knew well enough to add to my network.
Maybe it was a lucky batch, but it sure seems like LinkedIn’s algorithm found the people in my connections’ networks that I was most likely to know. If I had to guess, I would hazard they are extracting some kind of parameters from the kind of people already in my network and applying them to the set of people (in my network’s 1st-degree network + matching my employers). The approach is obvious, the execution is probably hard to nail, and the effect is exactly what it should be: magic.
It’s a good reminder that, despite all the exciting things Facebook is doing these days, LinkedIn is a very effective “social graph” for my business network. If they innovate fast enough, there’s a lot more they could do with it — and I look forward to it.
If you’re not already in my network, btw, the link is in the column to the right.
June 15th, 2007 06:30
Wow… that’s spooky. Deadly accurate and from a wide range of companies too. I knew (and would want to be connected to) 9 of the 10.
Cool.
June 19th, 2007 08:13
I think linkedin has made a significant change to their “rules” surrounding invites to linked in that I haven’t seen discussed anywhere.
I think in defense to facebook’s dramatic growth they appear to have loosened the rules around sending an invite through a mutual friend.
Let’s say I know a guy who is in your circle. If I didn’t know their email address, I’d have to request that YOU make the intro. Very recently it would appear they have loosened (or completely thrown out) that rule. Now when I log on, (as you describe) it suggests people you may know. From there… I make the request instead of having to go through a middle-man/woman.
Interesting…
June 19th, 2007 09:28
Marc,
Good note. I think the way that works is, you can go through the process to add anyone to your network, and you’re offered a pull-down as to how you know that person. If you worked with them at a specific company, it lets you proceed; for certain ones (e.g., friends), it prompts you for their personal email, as before.
I totally agree with you that LI is innovating quietly but interestingly and surely, and I hope it continues.
June 19th, 2007 17:56
“LI is innovating quietly but interestingly and surely, and I hope it continues.”
How long before you log-on to LI and hear a MIDI playing in the background and a photobucket slide-show on everyone’s profile page?
ANSWER: Hopefully never!