With the introduction of the Status feature, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the engineering behind this launch. Since joining LinkedIn in September 2006, I’ve been helping evolve the communications system into a highly scalable messaging platform. This release is very exciting for us as it builds upon the foundation we’ve put in place, making features like Status possible.
One of the key value propositions of LinkedIn is being informed about what your network is doing. This awareness can come in many forms: what questions are my connections asking? What news is my network reading? Propagating this information out to the LinkedIn network in a scalable manner is a difficult problem, but provides tremendous value to the end user. In order to support this going forward, we began to create a unified service that would provide network updates to users.
We’ve converted our back end to use this new service, and late last year we used the new Network Updates Service to create a time-based feed of the events in your network. We are currently processing over 40 million updates posted daily, which will continue to increase as the network grows. For someone like myself who has recently graduated from university, this is a daunting number, and yet, it’s why I continue to enjoy working at LinkedIn.
To handle this capacity, we use a cluster of ActiveMQ machines for distributed JMS processing, EHCache for fast in-process caching, and an efficient update procedure for when new updates are persisted. We’ve designed the system to be scalable right from the start, horizontally partitioning across multiple databases as growth demands.
We will continue to provide new updates into your feed, and for those of you who do not visit the site regularly, you will be receiving these updates in a bi-weekly email so you can be kept up to date with the latest activity in your network. I would like to thank the team that worked on the Status feature, particularly Scott Schlegel (Web Development), James Lau (Engineering), and Qian Su (Engineering).
If you would like to hear more details our messaging platform, or engineering at LinkedIn in general, I will be speaking at some upcoming conferences along with Ruslan Belkin and Nicholas Dellamaggiore:
- SDWest, March 4, 7:00pm – 8:30.
- JavaOne, May 3-6 2008
- Velocity, June 23-24, 2008, Burlingame CA
And, at the events particularly the SD West Birds of a Feather event, “There Will be Pizza”!
Our most recent news announcement came early this morning and gathered a slew of attention from some top tier publications. As you probably already know, Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft is asking LinkedIn’s 20 million users to give him advice about how to get youths involved in science and technology. All LinkedIn members are being granted permission to give answers/make suggestions to Bill’s question in real time. It has already received almost 2000 answers.
Mr. Gates’ appearance presents something of a marketing opportunity for the Mountain View, Calif., social network. To coincide with his appearance, Microsoft is buying ads across the site today. It also helps Linkedin promote an unrelated round of changes to the site, including a redesign that allows users to organize blocks of information, or modules, on their profile page, and to write a short statement that keeps their contacts updated on their current doings.
It isn’t the first time public figures have used LinkedIn and other networking sites as a platform. In this election year, there’s been a lot of online attempts to “connect” ordinary citizens and the candidates. Five months ago, presidential contender Barack Obama posted a question on LinkedIn.
3. Associated Press | Bill Gates Links Up with LinkedIn
Microsoft Corp.’s big bet on Facebook’s online social network isn’t stopping Chairman Bill Gates from promoting other popular Internet hangouts. Gates is helping out LinkedIn Corp.’s online professional network by setting up a profile on the service and posing a question to help draw more attention to a makeover of the Web site’s front page.
The AP article also appeared in reprinted versions on a number of other sites like Yahoo! News, CNN, ABC News and USA Today.
Social networking has not always been kind to Gates, although he is said to enjoy the technology. Last year, he ran into trouble with his Facebook site when he was overwhelmed with “Friends” requests and had to shut down his site. Microsoft since has made a $240 million investment in Facebook, although it is unclear whether Gates has returned. With LinkedIn, Gates can use privacy settings to prevent random people from asking him to connect to their network.
To me, LinkedIn’s Q&A feature is great (I’ve even used it to get sources for my stories). Although, as for Bill, I’m sure there will be a flood of questions. Keep in mind that LinkedIn has 19 million registered users.
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What are your thoughts about our brand new homepage design? Did you try and answer Bill Gates’ question? Feel free to comment to this blog post. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
From time to time, LinkedIn Answers has featured some of the greatest minds on the planet (ranging from Jimmy Wales to Barack Obama) pose thought-provoking questions to the millions of professionals on LinkedIn, which in most cases yields an avalanche of well-thought out responses.
Today, we’re glad to announce a question (that straddles education and technology) from one of the foremost and well recognized technologists of our generation and TIME Magazine’s pick for one of the most influential personalities of the 20th century – Bill Gates, Chairman at Microsoft.
We will be updating this post with select answers as they come rolling in, so please stay tuned. And, don’t forget to add your 2 cents to the conversation.
It’s still the first half of the day and we’ve already received close to a 1000 answers. So here are some interesting answers from the initial stream of Answers.
Jeff Yablon (President & CEO, PC-VIP Inc.) kicked off the conversation with his take on encouraging the youth, from his perspective as a Dad.
While, Ed Dodds (Strategist and Systems Architect) suggests that learning from good corporate governance as well as open source community collaboration may be the place to start.
Nils Beers, inventor of a solar powered speedboat, laments the lack of innovative spirit in today’s youth.
And for a global perspective, here’s an answer from Sanjay Gupta an Mobile Solutions Entrepreneur from India.
Did you know: Bill Gates was named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006! (Source: Wikipedia)
On many past occasions I’ve blogged about incremental changes being made to the LinkedIn homepage design, so I’m really glad to announce the complete redesign of the LinkedIn homepage and am going to to walk you through some of those changes in a demo that you can find below. Feel free to leave your feedback in the comments section of this blog post.
As I described in the demo, there are three parts to the homepage redesign:
1. System of Navigation
We’ve gradually transitioned away from a system of tabs to one of drop-down menus. Check out the horizontal top bar which exemplifies this the best. We’ve also created a consistent personal navigation bar vertically, which you use to manage the various elements of your professional network.
2. Profile Snapshot (with Status)
This component can be found right below the vertical personal navigation bar on the left. What this allows you to do is figure out how exactly you are presenting your professional identity, how up-to-date and accurate the information is and basically how complete your LinkedIn network is. This profile snapshot also contains the new Status feature that Chris demos here.
3. Customizable widgets panel
In addition to the above enhancements, LinkedIn’s redesigned home page includes several customizable modules that I’ve hinted at in prior blog posts. Currently there are three light-weight applications that allow you to more fully leverage the collective wisdom of your professional network. Stay tuned for more.
- The Answers module showcases what questions your network is asking, so that you can directly contribute to the network’s knowledge and perhaps ask a question yourself.
- The People module showcases the contacts you can make through your network (by using the connections of your connections).
- The Jobs module showcases the jobs and opportunities your network can help you with.
And, finally you’ll notice that we’ve pushed out the navigation style across the length and breadth of LinkedIn so now there’s a consistent look-and-feel as you traverse our site. Check out how the LinkedIn Groups page looks on LinkedIn currently.
Feel free to send us your feedback both through the feedback links that you can find on every page or leave a comment on this blog post.
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Blooper Reel: Those of you watching the video demo above may have noticed cameos from Adam, Minna and Ace as they walked past our conference room, but if you’re a fan of the “World’s Funniest Office Videos”, check out the outtakes from my demo, taken at my expense. (Courtesy: Mario and Rob. Thanks, guys!)
The blog has given me an opportunity to announce some reallycoolfeature enhancements to the different ways you communicate on LinkedIn. Today, in addition to the new homepage redesign that Elliot demoed, I’d like to call out a few nifty features that’ll most definitely enhance the way you relate to your professional network each time you log into LinkedIn.
Feel free to check out a quick demo below, of the three feature upgrades followed by a quick summary after the jump:
1. Simplified Inbox
In order to present you with the most appropriate messages in your LinkedIn Inbox, we’ve altered the logic so that your Inbox shows the five most recent actionable messages. We’ve also made it easier for you to take an appropriate action directly from the LinkedIn homepage (see demo). Of course, clicking on the Inbox icon takes you to a full-fledged Inbox page, yet again within the consistent look-and-feel that Elliot described earlier.
2. Customized Network Updates
We’re also giving you, the user, more control over what types of network updates you’re currently viewing on your homepage. By clicking to “Network Updates” (“Homepage Settings”) under your “Accounts and Settings“, you’ll be able to choose:
a. The kinds of updates you’d rather see on your homepage (photo updates, status updates, etc…)
b. The number of updates you’d like to see on your homepage (10, 15, 20, etc…)
3. Status
Most professionals love sharing anecdotes, tidbits about their professional lives with one another and thus far on LinkedIn it wasn’t possible to do so. Starting today, you should be able to update your current status on a daily basis, which should provide you not only an additional way to communicate effectively with your immediate network but also tap into the knowledge network you’re a part of.
We do suggest status options such as “working on…”, “traveling to…”, “looking for advice on…”, “looking for a job…” or “reading…”; but you also have the option to update status with any other professional tasks you’re currently engrossed in. Imagine being able to let your network know that you’re hiring or when you’re planning a business trip or conference!
Status information will be broadcast to your connections as a network update and will also appear as a new element on your profile page. Given our focus on ensuring user privacy, you will have the option to control your status visibility. Additionally, LinkedIn members can choose whether they want to see the status in their network updates feed.
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Feel free to leave comments. Your feedback is much appreciated. And, let me know how I can do better on camera!
You may have seen some of my earlier videos on the blog (here and here) describing the engineering nuances and philosophy at LinkedIn. This time around, I’d like to announce that some of our lead engineers and I, will be sharing our experiences and best practices during a Birds of a Feather presentation at the Software Development Conference and Expo West.
The event will be held on March 4th, 2008 from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Feel free to check out further details here.
If you’re interested at getting an inside look into LinkedIn Engineering, learn about some of the technological and organizational challenges of growing one of the world’s largest professional networks from 0 to 20 million members, or just to find out the process and tools we use in our daily work then this is the chance for you to stop by and ask questions? Once again, it’s the LinkedIn Birds of a Feather event at SDWest 2008 on March 4th, 2008 at 7:00pm
LinkedIn’s lead engineers and managers (Nicholas Dellamaggiore – Principal Engineer, Networks team lead, and Sean Dawson – Sr. Software Engineer, Communications Platform team lead) as well as yours truly hope to share some of our knowledge and experience and will be available to answer questions in an informal setting. Hope to see you at the event.
There is lot of information available on the internet. Some of this information may be generated
through your LinkedIn profile. We have provided you with tools which enable you to control your LinkedIn information.
Below are a few tips on how to control your data and establish the desired level of privacy with your profile.
To start, log into your account and go to your Account and Settings and take a look at the following features.
This feature gives you control over the exact amount of information you want displayed on the web. Search engines index LinkedIn and display elements of your profile. Please note that under Public Profile you are enable things such as; summary, interests, and many others.
LinkedIn also allows you to add photographs to your profile. You may select who has the ability to see
your photo. You can select your connections, your network, or everyone.
LinkedIn has created a feature called “Who’s viewed my profile”. This feature displays a notification describing some information about the individual who viewed the profile. You have the control as to what
information is displayed if you view someone’s information.
With this setting you are given the choice to just have your first name and last initial displayed publicly. This setting is intended to stop people you have not connected with from knowing your last name. People you have already connected with see your last name in their connections list. Display names are important to have set correctly because this is how people will find you within LinkedIn. Additional information in the name fields is against the Terms of Service and could lead to a suspension or termination of the account. This includes email addresses, phone numbers, or even information
pertaining to the size of your network.
Your privacy is of the utmost importance to us. I hope these tips helped. Please do not hesitate to contact privacy@LinkedIn.com with further
questions.
Well, this is the first time I’m blogging on our corporate blog and I’ve got to thank Mario for roping me into this. Today, I’d like to announce LinkedIn mobile for any Web enabled wireless phones that use the wireless application protocol (WAP). What that allows you to do is access LinkedIn from any mobile device ranging from your Blackberry to iPhone (more on that in just a second).
For those of you who can’t wait to take LinkedIn with you on your mobile devices, here’s how you access LinkedIn on your iPhone or other WAP enabled devices. All you have to do from your mobile device is log into
The beta product includes a version specially optimized for the iPhone and is available immediately in English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese with additional languages to follow.
So, here’s a short video overview (3:36) of LinkedIn mobile.
And, here’s Jerry Luk, the lead engineer on LinkedIn mobile giving you a quick demo (4:36) of how to access LinkedIn on your iPhone. For those of you who don’t have the time to check out the iPhone demo, feel free to check out five key benefits of using LinkedIn mobile (with screen shots below).
LinkedIn Features on your mobile device (as of Feb 24, 2008):
• Search LinkedIn profiles (including photos and bio) to help recall and connect with business acquaintances at events and conferences
• Research the common contacts they have with other professionals to help make real world referrals and introductions easier
• Invite professional acquaintances and peers you meet at events to LinkedIn with just their email address. Exchanging business cards is just not cool anymore!
• Receive regular Network update capabilities about your connections while on the go
• International versions currently launched include French, German, Spanish, Japanese and Chinese. More to follow.
We’re also working on expanding the mobile LinkedIn feature set to encompass more of the LinkedIn goodness you can access on our site, including LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Experts. (Click through the above screen shots for a better view of LinkedIn Mobile).
Stay tuned for our announcements on the blog and feel free to leave a comment here with any feedback.
Quick Tip: Did you know you can create a shiny new LinkedIn web clip for your iPhone homepage using the + button. Click here to learn more.
One of my first posts on the blog was to announce the Outlook toolbar v2.2 in May 2007. This time around, I’m here to announce the next version of the Firefox browser toolbar, which is used by more than 100,000 of you. So, what’s new about this update you may ask. Well, we’ve updated support for the Info box in the latest versions of your favorite web mail including Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, and Gmail (What is Info Box?). We’ve also updated support for the Jobs Insider for Monster, Hotjobs, Craigslist, CareerBuilder, Dice, and Vault.
For existing users of the toolbar these are bound to be welcome changes but for the uninitiated here are the benefits of using the Firefox toolbar. Isn’t having access to your LinkedIn network as you browse the web good enough?
You may have also noticed that in addition to looking up people instantly from any website and your web mail, the browser toolbar has a feature called the Jobs Insider. So, when all you job hunters view a job listing, the JobsInsider opens a side pane where you’ll automatically see your inside connections to the company whose job you’re looking at!
Convinced? Download the latest version of the Firefox browser toolbar here.
We’d really love your feedback on the latest iteration of the toolbar. Feel free to either leave a comment on this post or email us at firefox_support@linkedin.com.
Two years ago, Chris Anderson launched a book that became an instant frame of reference for most modern online businesses. Love it or hate it, chances are you have heard some reference to “The Long Tail” in relation to the evolving economics of Internet-based businesses. (Chris continues to maintain his blog on the topic here: The Long Tail).
I’m not going to attempt to reproduce the full Long Tail 101 here on this blog. The basic concept is fairly simple:
The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of “hits” (mainstream products and markets) at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, there is now less need to lump products and consumers into one-size-fits-all containers. In an era without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, narrowly-target goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare.
Two weeks ago, Tim O’Reilly wrote an excellent post about Mike Gamson’s discussion of the LinkedIn Research Network. Tim did an excellent job covering the basics of Mike’s talk, and providing a frame of references against our existing LinkedIn Answers product.
However, there is a broader concept here that affects everyone’s daily usage of LinkedIn, including mine. I hinted at it months ago when I highlighted how much I enjoy the advanced capabilities of LinkedIn’s people search engine. You could say that it’s recognizing the power of the long tail of professional expertise.
LinkedIn now has close to 20 million professionals on it, many of whom have detailed descriptions of their education, their experience, and their skills. As LinkedIn swells in size, searches that used to return hundreds of results can now return millions. More importantly, searches that used to return zero results are now starting to return hundreds. Believe it or not, the latter fact is really the exciting opportunity.
So many of our people-related search tasks today are hampered by a lack of granularity. A hiring manager looking for the perfect candidate. A business development manager looking for the perfect lead. A journalist looking for the perfect source.
As LinkedIn grows in size, the ability to tap into the long tail of expertise grows, and with it, your ability to find exactly the set of experiences you are looking for. Those millions of members translate into hundreds of thousands of companies, thousands of degrees, and hundreds of industries across the globe.
As a result, when using LinkedIn, consider the fact that one of the major benefits of the site is not only finding people with exactly the right expertise, but it’s also being found yourself. It’s a good reminder to get your profile completed, to add those details about your positions, and round out the description of your skills.
Make sure to take your place in the long tail of expertise.
We love to hear from you. So feel free to comment, but keep in mind the basics of blog etiquette — no spam, no profanity, no slander, etc. All comments are moderated.
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With the introduction of the Status feature, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the engineering behind this launch. Since joining LinkedIn in September 2006, I’ve been helping evolve the communications system into a highly scalable messaging platform. This release is very exciting for us as it builds upon the foundation we’ve put in place, making features like Status possible.
