Learn more about “People You May Know”
We’ve recently enhanced “People you may know” by expanding it to more users and providing a means for you to give us feedback about the quality of the recommendations. This feature has been around for almost a year and the goal is to suggest people you may want to connect to. You now have the ability to eliminate suggestions; this valuable feedback will aid us improving our algorithms and deliver you more relevant results.
Let me clarify that this feature is very targeted so not everyone necessarily has results. Also, it is still being rolled out and we are expanding the methods we use to compute results so please check back. Here’s a quick rundown that will help you navigate this nifty LinkedIn feature:
1. Find: You’ll notice that LinkedIn’s “People you may know” is the first module that you’ll find on the top right hand pane of your redesigned LinkedIn homepage showcasing three relevant recommendations of people you may know.
2. Fine-Tune: The best part of the feature is that you can avoid seeing the same recommendations each time you log into LinkedIn, by identifying the recommendation as one of the following:
a. I don’t know them
b. I don’t know them well enough
c. Prefer not to connect
d. Other reason
3. See More: If you’d like to check out additional recommendations, click on
the “See More.” This will lead you to a landing page with more results listed (if there are additional ones for you).
You can also import contacts from your preferred email provider or use the education and colleague reconnect features to look for past colleagues and classmates. Finally, you can try a name search in the search box near the top-right to look for particular individuals.
Hopefully you’ll be delighted by some of the results! Feel free to leave comments or feedback at the end of this blog post.
trackback
http://blog.linkedin.com/2008/04/11/learn-more-abou-2/trackback/
Derek Birnie April 11th, 2008
Nice feature, but a drawback is that LinkedIn is recommending people I have already found and invited, but who haven’t responded. Isn’t there a way to automatically filter out contacts with pending invitations?
Sheilah Etheridge April 12th, 2008
I like the changes and the ability to remove the names. That is a definate plus. However, a few members have invited the people on their people you may know list and had their account restricted because of the dreaded IDK.
I would think that since Linkedin is suggesting that we may know or benefit from knowing these people they would prevent the IDK’s from affecting anyone’s accounts. Afterall the members are not searching out these names, linkedin suggesting it by adding it to the home page.
Sheilah
Pud April 14th, 2008
Tell me how to unsubscribe from LinkedIn. I did not intend to have this at work, only with my home computer and it could get me in trouble at work. So, please how do I unsubscribe here at work from LinkedIn?
Nakia Raglin April 14th, 2008
I think this is an interesting feature. I am curious, how are the “People You May Know” filtered? In other words, do they show up becauase they have viewed my profile…or because we share a 2nd level connection in the same network?
Dada April 14th, 2008
Please.. how can I get rid of this module ? It’s just so irritating.. just like facebook’s ‘people you may know’ feature, which they have now removed.
Michael ODonnell April 15th, 2008
Re “People you may know”
I find that this feature has so far recommended only people I am already linked to. I would like to see another response added to help you with the algorithm:
e) I am already linked to this person
Marsha Marinich April 15th, 2008
I like this feature; it helps me to connect with people I may know but haven’t kept in touch with. I also appreciate that I can control it with the options given.
Rakesh Sud April 21st, 2008
All these features are a waste of time unless linked in Consumer service gets its act together.
The responses to queries is pathetic.The answers are beurocratic and probably put togther by a low level functionary who has no imagination – it could as well be a machine answering.
I still do not understand linkedin’s rationing of invitations.
Britta April 23rd, 2008
I love that feature! It has brought several people back on my radar which indeed i did know but had lost track of. Curious to understand how frequently the algorithm produces additional people you might know.
Rakesh Sud April 23rd, 2008
People you may know includes people connected in first degree. This needs to be filtered.
Alan April 24th, 2008
I just read your article, “Learn more about People You May Know” and was pleased to see that I can provide feedback on whether I know this person and why I am deleting.
Well, it is really hard to provide that feedback. When I hover above the “x” (delete sign) the 5-level pull down menu slightly to the left of the “x”; that pull-down menu is nearly impossible to grab. It takes me nearly a dozen tries to move my pointer over to the pull down menu to finally capture it before it disappears. It is far too sensitive and disappears before I can grab and provide the feedback. I’d really like to use the feature, but LinkedIn has made it too hard to use. Can you alert the appropriate person to this issue. Even if they tested it to their satisfaction, for some reason, it doesn’t work at all easily for a guy working on a Sony Laptop in Seattle.
Shawn Callahan April 24th, 2008
This is a terrific feature. I found a bunch of people who I know but haven’t linked to yet. I agree with Derek and Michael that an option to say you have already invited someone would help.
sam April 26th, 2008
Same questions/comments as 2 already made: 1)how are the “PYMK” selected? (because they viewed me, because we’re 2nd level connections, other?), and 2) if I ‘remove’ names from this list so I don’t keep seeing the same ones, does that block us from connecting?
Will answers be posted somewhere? Thanks.
Vijay Ramamoorthy April 26th, 2008
Great feature! you guys are amazing – creativity oozing! well done, we love you.
Keen to know if this is filtered by people who have seen me or thro my connections? Please do share if it isn’t trade secret!
Mario Sundar April 28th, 2008
Thanks for the feedback. @michael, will pass that suggestion on to jonathan and team.
James May 2nd, 2008
Really silly comment really, but it is correct use of English to say “People you might know” rether than “may”, which infers the user has been granted permission to add these people.
John Donald May 5th, 2008
I like this feature – it would be good to have a “refresh” option. I may have said that I don’t want to connect with someone for some reason at some point, but then later, I may have met that person or gotten to know them better.
Hisham Abu Osba May 7th, 2008
I think this is quite interesting and v useful, after all most of us seek to get in contact with other professional connections, whether they are colleagues, classmates or profesional people, which is the essence of Linkedin. Keep up the good work.
Natalia June 2nd, 2008
I do like this feature, as it is one of the ways that I have to keep updating my network.
However, I’ve just noticed that it does not provide accurate information.
Among the “people I may know” appears one of my colleagues to be added. I am pretty much sure that I have her on my network, however, since some people tend to forget passwords / revamp profiles, etc. I decide to add her, and… “can’t add, she’s already on your network”.
I’d like to certify that the intelligence this feature runs will show me only the people that I don’t have on my network. That’s my suggestion to you!
Castellina July 8th, 2008
hi. great features, great guys, great ideas, great company!!
pls could you try to install the “people who have viewed your profile” again on my site? apparently it was there on transit..;-))
thanks for all!!
Castellina
Carole Holliday August 8th, 2008
When I click on the x to remove the name from the people I may know, it does not comply.
Is there a problem with the system?
Mario Sundar August 12th, 2008
@Carole,
You shouldn’t have a problem with the removal of names from People You May Know. Let me know if you still are.
The LinkedIn Blog » Blog Archive Top 10 LinkedIn Stories of 2008 « December 24th, 2008
[...] Learn more about “People You May Know” by Jonathan [...]
Linus Orth April 25th, 2009
How do you come up with list? There are people on it that I have no idea who they are, but I am curious why they are listed. Also, people I know who are in linkedin, but I am not linked to don’t come up, such as my wife.
Dirk Frey April 28th, 2009
@ Linus- I’m constantly amazed at some of the people that appear. Some people could be connections of connections, maybe you share a common interest or group. The analytics will continue to get better but if you don’t know the person, utilize the options to eliminate the name so you can see who else we come up with. As for your wife…if she’ll share her email address with you… maybe you could invite her into your inner circle of trusted connections.
Sujit June 17th, 2009
I love the feature. I got a few contacts through it. But I haven’t seen the “People you may know” suggestion in the last few days. How can I turn back on? Did this get taken out?
Dirk Frey June 30th, 2009
@Sujit – I can see it from my end. It should be in the upper right module of your home page. If not please contact Customer Service and they can research your issue further.
mrz August 3rd, 2009
I find this is incredibly creepy. I have not given LinkedIn access to my email, but they are suggesting people who are not in my network, who I have nothing in common with on my profile, but who I actually do know. If someone else allows them to access his email, and my name is in his address book, will that make his name pop up on my profile as someone I might know? I feel that this is an invasion of the other person’s privacy.
Christina August 19th, 2009
How does LinkedIn’s “People You May Know” feature work? While some suggestions are obvious — similar fields, geographic areas, university associations — others seem random. I received suggestions for several people that I am connected with on other social networking sites, but that I have no other commonalities with. Does LinkedIn share information with other sites?
Dirk Frey August 26th, 2009
@ Christina- We utilize our own proprietary algorithms to find commonalities amongst members. I always look forward to logging in each day to see who we suggest next. – Dirk
Joe September 1st, 2009
This “People You May Know” feature worries me. Of the millions and millions of members, it INSTANTLY referred me to some people that do NOT have ANY commonality with my very limited info on my LinkedIn profile, but they ARE people in my private Gmail account. Is LinkedIn secretly checking my Gmail activity for clues about “People I May Know”? This would be a terrible invasion of my private Gmail. Does LinkedIn have a secret technological way to use my Gmail contact info without my permission? I ain’t a conspiracy theorist, I just really want to know the answer!
Dirk Frey September 8th, 2009
@Joe- Thanks for you interest but I can assure you there are no conspiracies here. :) You probably have some connection within your network that would tie you together. We just look at your network and the networks of others and try to connect the dots. Networks are composed of people 1-3 degrees away and groups that you might share. So, you may share a 3rd degree connection and we might eventually offer them up in this feature as a person you may know. Members also use the ‘Build your Network’ feature to download their own email address books into the Imported Contacts tab of the address book and then use that to send Invitations. If you were to have used that feature we may identify members in that list that might already be LinkedIn users. You have not used that feature so the first option is most likely how the connection was made.
Mike September 16th, 2009
I still don’t feel the question is being answered directly in a way that is useful to LinkedIn members; as a point of comparison, facebook suggests dozens upon dozens of people I may know based on common acquaintances. If LinkedIn is looking at networks and networks of others from 1-3 degrees away, I would expect a lot more suggestions, especially when you look at the number of jobs, schools, professional affiliations, interests and other data points on a profile. Instead, it seems primarily to suggest people I used to work with or go to school with. Which isn’t bad, but it isn’t really improving the ability to easily expand a network in a way that would be equally obvious to both parties. My concern is the number of introductions is being limited for people who do not have a paid membership, otherwise I would expect to see a lot more recommendations of PYMK. I also worry that the utility of LinkedIn is therefore being limited as more people talk about moving their primary business connecting to sites like Facebook and Twitter, which I don’t think are nearly as focused as LinkedIn but which people are enjoying using at no cost. Just some thoughts.
Jim Arnold October 2nd, 2009
How can I hide the “People You May Know” feature? I don’t want or use it. Thanks!
H November 10th, 2009
How does it know who I know?????!!!!!!!
Sherlock November 12th, 2009
Oops – one more alternative: Facebook! We were briefly “friended” on FB, so it could be that FB sold us out. Would not surprise me.