Viewers Of This Profile Also Viewed
We’ve just released a new feature: “Viewers of this profile also viewed.” Now, whenever you view someone’s profile, you’ll see other related profiles, which you can click on and browse through.
Here’s an example of what you will see if you view the profile of TechCrunch blogger, Michael Arrington. You’ll see that people who viewed his profile also tended to view the profiles of Edgio CEO’s, Keith Teare, fellow tech bloggers: Jason Calacanis, Om Malik, Dave McClure, and LGiLAB’s GM, Ouriel Ohayon.
At LinkedIn, we believe in collective intelligence, and the team that brought you this feature (as well as ‘People you may know’ and ‘Who’s viewed my profile’) is busy working on some even cooler stuff. Stay tuned.
NOTE: You’ll need to be logged into LinkedIn to see this feature. Click the “View Full Profile” button if you’re looking at the person’s public profile.
trackback
http://blog.linkedin.com/2008/01/23/viewers-of-this/trackback/
Matt Tager January 24th, 2008
Steve,
I noticed this feature yesterday and it’s awesome. As a recruiter, you always want the most efficient ways to search as many “like” profiles as possible. Keep up the great work!
Matt
Matt Tager January 24th, 2008
Steve,
I noticed this feature yesterday and it’s awesome. As a recruiter, you always want the most efficient ways to search as many “like” profiles as possible. Keep up the great work!
Matt
Jon Bryant January 24th, 2008
Steve,
I love the new feature. I stumbled across it the day it was launched and started using it immediately with great results. As I look over the links, they are very relevant and really aid in networking.
Thanks,
Jon Bryant
CONCOURSE
Kevin Fukuda January 25th, 2008
Steve,
How often does it update though? Or will I just see the same 5 people listed all the time?
Johann Vertis January 27th, 2008
Steven -
Would suggest taking a page from the uproar friendster created 3 years ago – from which they never recovered: surfacing user footprints retroactively with a new “who viewed this or that profile” will piss off a good portion of your users. Doesn’t matter how cute you think you’re being with the 2nd degree of separation “also-viewed”. Your team is failing to think through a number of embarrassing collateral contingencies for your users.
You’d be best advised to take down the feature (remove data supplied from users that unwittingly supplied it before you changed the rules) until data supplied by your users POST-Announcement of the feature populates the function. Would also suggest sending a crystal clear explanation out to LI members in a “LinkedIn updates” email. Thought LI was smarter than this.
J L S February 3rd, 2008
I think this feature is fine, but there’s no way to disable it. With it turned on, you’re not browsing in complete anonomitity. Will there be a way to turn it off in the future?
AJ February 7th, 2008
Where can we find “people you may know”? I have searched everywhere and can’t find it on the site, only references to it elsewhere…
Jennifer Wall Smith February 7th, 2008
Great feature! This helped me uncover a former colleague who had joined LI that I was unaware of.
Keep the good ideas coming!
Mary Brokenberg February 8th, 2008
This is an invasion of privacy. I think it was very sneaky adding this in without first allowing an opt out. I’m highly disappointed. Also when is it going to change? The same 5 names have been sitting there for over 2 weeks.
Bobby February 11th, 2008
I think this feature is wonderful, but it would be even more effective if the individuals listed consisted of all users who looked at a given profile. The five listed could change with each view from those that visit most often to least often.
Bobby
DMac April 13th, 2008
In principle I love the feature – no issues with data privacy from my viewpoint.
However, its been the same static data for 2+ months now and so I feel it adds little value. Please refresh the data a bit more frequently
mar December 18th, 2008
Hello,
I think there should be a way to disable this feature.
I also agree that the ten listed should change in each page view.
br,
mar
Nate Benard February 16th, 2009
I would like to disable this feature ASAP. Thanks.
Nate
Elliott Augustine February 26th, 2009
I would like to disable this feature and find it very annoying. I might disable my account soon if you don’t make it an option.
Geeky April 6th, 2009
How does this feature work?
Rob May 18th, 2009
Has anyone found a way to disable it? It is definitely an invasion of privacy. I am leaving public tracks when I visit other people’s profiles (and a fix should be retroactive so that it will automatically remove previous evidence of an anonymous visit).
Bee June 7th, 2009
I agree with others who have commented that it is static and hasn’t changed. The same 5 names have been sitting there for a long period yet people have told me they viewed my listing. Why don’t the names change?
Dirk Frey June 8th, 2009
@Rob Privacy settings are very important to us as well. It is very important to us that you to feel comfortable when using the site too. You do have the ability to control what other LinkedIn viewers will see about you in this feature. Go to Account and Settings->Privacy Settings->Profile Views. From there you can :
1.) Show your name and headline.
2.) Only show anonymous profile characteristics, such as industry and title.
3.) Not show the user that you even viewed their profile.
Here is a link to the ‘Who has Viewed My Profile’ FAQ found in the Customer Service Center that will tell you a bit more about the feature and walk you through how to get to those adjustments. : http://linkedin.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linkedin.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=42.
Dirk Frey June 17th, 2009
@bee and others- We are aware that some of you may not be seeing refreshed data. Thanks for your patience as we work to find a permanent solution.
Richard July 15th, 2009
Dirk – Thanks for your post back in June.
Any estimate on when this data will be refeshed?
I see a number of profiles with 500+ connections that have not updated for over a month, plus my own profile somehow shows some people whom I’ve looked up (that nobody else could have logically looked up) and I’d rather not have them be shown. I’ve actually stopped using the site and I know for a fact that others have viewed additional profiles after/before mine since I’ve stopped that should be showing up.
This feature is fine with me as long as it updates so that it truly shows who other people have viewed (rather than anyone I’ve happened to view), but if not, it’s enough to make me just kill my account.
Dirk Frey July 15th, 2009
@Richard-I’m being told that the data was recently refreshed. Can you confirm this? If not I’ll have a CS rep contact you to a screen shot as an example that we can take back to the engineers.
Thanks! Dirk
Chuck July 28th, 2009
Is there a way to disable this feature from appearing on your profile? If there isn’t it should be added asap!
Dirk Frey July 29th, 2009
Just to add clarification, this feature does not identify profiles you have been viewing. It only shows profiles that have been viewed by other people who also looked at your profile. In other words the feature focuses on the browsing patterns of others and does not show your browsing patterns at all.
Chuck August 3rd, 2009
But the appearance to the casual browser is that there is some sort of a connection or relationship between me and the people listed in this feature, since we are being viewed by the same people. In my case, it so happens that some of the people listed I feel very uncomforable having them appear on my profile page. Is there at least a way to request that this data be cleared from my profile?
Dirk Frey August 6th, 2009
@Chuck- At this time there exists no feature that would support this but I’m forwarding it on to the Product Manager so they can review your comments and consider them in later enhancements. -Dirk
Sonya August 6th, 2009
I was trying to track some former colleaugues and friends, and now most of the people I looked up are showing in this list. It absolutely shows my browsing pattern. + 1 for being able to disable this feature asap.
Gareth James August 13th, 2009
I quite like this feature, but disabling it needs to be an option.
alec August 18th, 2009
Totally agree that disabling needs to be an option. Even though my privacy settings are at “don’t show users that I’ve viewed their profile”, my browsing history shows up
in a person’s “Viewers of this profile also viewed” feature. Sometimes, the only connection these people have is me, so it could potentially show that I viewed their profile. This feature has also not been refreshed in months. It has certainly limited my browsing of other people’s profiles since I would rather not have my browsing history show up in other people’s profiles.
Maria August 24th, 2009
I have the same problem as Chuck (August 3rd).
There’s somebody on my “Viewers of this profile also viewed” list that I am extremely uncomfortable about being associated with.
Plus, the list hasn’t refreshed in weeks, although many people have viewed my profile since.
Mike September 9th, 2009
My “Viewers of this profile also viewed” feature only shows one person and it has been that way for some time. How do I get it to refresh. This is a great feature as this is business networking and not social.
Clint Wilson September 19th, 2009
This feature does not work as planned. I have the same contacts and not contacts on this for weeks now. I just had 20 of my contacts hit my LinkedIn and then drill down to other contacts of mine to test this feature.
NO CHANGE in these 10 contacts here.
Now I am associated with 10 contacts which I looked at once.
Nice feature so what are my options now to get new ones to come up here.
~Clint
Dirk Frey September 29th, 2009
Clint I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I’ll be reporting this as a possible bug to our engineers.
Demont October 4th, 2009
@Dirk: How does this feature work and how often is it updated? I’ve seen this question asked but never explained fully.
Demont
alec October 7th, 2009
The viewers of this profile also viewed feature doesn’t seem to have been refreshed in months.
I checked on some of the profiles that my browsing history had shown up in and they still had my browsing history. You would think that at least the names get changed frequently as new contacts get added and other profiles get viewed.
That doesn’t seem to be a very real time feature which in today’s world seems old fashioned.
mik October 10th, 2009
“Viewers Of This Profile Also Viewed” — How can i diable this whole section from the right side of my profile?
Kane October 31st, 2009
I’d posted the following comment over two weeks ago, and I still don’t see it posted. Of course, if moderation means shutting down your readers who express something you disagree with, go ahead.
– — –
So, I’ve been checking this blog entry periodically for the past 2 years in the hope that there will be *some* way to turn this “feature” off, with no luck (re: feature – I use that term quite loosely, of course).
It would at least be bear this list were to be updatever, the list hapdated eve it first showed up.\parOn some level, it is embarrassing that these random profiles are shown next to mine.
LinkedIn intended to or not, theseare associated wiprofthe eyes of the random viewer – there have been at least a couple of cases when I’ve been asked if I “knew” someone who was shown on the list on the right. And trust me, I do not want to be associated with some of them in any shape or form.
If LinkedIn is to continue having this feature, please do one of the following -
1. Update the list more often than, oh, 2 years.
2. Give the user the ability to turn it off.
If anything, folks have been complaining about this particular “feature” even on LinkedIn forums for almost 2 years, and I see the same old list of people that I saw in January 2008.
*Please* do something. At the very least, listen to your customers.
Ron Dials November 29th, 2009
The appearance to the casual browser is that there is some sort of a connection or relationship between me and the people listed in this feature, since we are being viewed by the same people. In my case, it so happens that some of the people listed I feel very very uncomforable having them appear on my profile page. I would like to remove this feature from my profile ASAP.
saint January 7th, 2010
There is no point to this feature other than to discourage people from viewing Linkedin accounts. Maybe this is good, it can cut down on the stalking. However we should be able to delete the names; they are annoying and pointless. I’m also annoyed with LI for its poor way of informing its users about this feature. I am embarrassed that a faculty member whose profile I viewed in order to get a reference now has my LI rolodex pasted onto her profile page. It seems tacky. If the idea is to discourage trolls (and I’m all for that!) then LI should show the names of the parties that view your profile page; complete transparency or complete privacy–this middle road is not working out, obviously!