Announce your Status to your professional network
The blog has given me an opportunity to announce some really cool feature 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!
Sheilah Etheridge Feb 28, 2008
Hi Chris,
Nice features, but still others we have been asking for for quite some time. It would be great if we could see the last log in date for members ( as an option of course people can opt in or out of). Many find it frustrating not knowing if a member is even active. Why request an introduction to someone who hasn't been active in months?
Although the new layout is nice, it is definately more work. For instance the page no longer fits so one must scroll over, click next then scroll over once the new page opens. Then scroll back to see the other side. All in all it is not an improvement over the old one. It seemed like it would be and then .......
It seems incredibly slow as well; several minutes to get account and settings to open as well as posting answers. This is occurring no matter which browser I use. I have used Netscape, IE, FF, and Safari and the same isssues occur no matter what.
Sheilah
Jasper de Valk Feb 28, 2008
Will status updates (new anecdotes) be grouped? Otherwise if you have a lot of connections sharing their status, you will not be able to see your network updates anymore..
Maya Forstater Feb 28, 2008
Status updates are a great idea (although I can't seem to get the little bubble to come up so I can update mine yet..it just goes to edit profile).
But it seems like you can only say you are doing one thing at a time. Who work like that?! Wouldn't it be better if you could list multiple projects you are working on, issues you are investigating, trips you are planning etc? and then cross them off when they are no longer current (you could even have a feature that rolls them up into a cumulitive timeline of what you have been up to ...)
Michael Flood Feb 28, 2008
I love the new look! Congrats!
Just make sure you don't have those ads come back that slow down my whole laptop.
John Koshy Feb 28, 2008
Hi Chris,
Thanks for these new features and your demo.
I am pleased to be LinkedIn!
Cheers,
John Koshy
Ian Jindal Feb 28, 2008
Hi - overall I really like the new design: leaner, clean yet with good info density.
My two "gripes" are
1) PLEASE let me get rid of the "news" - it's too big, irrelevant and not the reason I come to LinkedIn (it's hardly the 'first place for industry news'!)
2) Could you look at adding some functionality to the Groups? Compared with Facebook (ahem) - where one can hold events, message people, organise and communicate - they are just like digital "Carrier bags": you can see that other people buy their groceries in the same place but that's about it.
Best wishes
ikj
Mark Cupitt Feb 28, 2008
Hi, Well done on the New Look Site.
My two cents worth:
Last Login Date or a predetermined period that lets you know if someone has been active or not is a big help
For the developers, I tried to add a status update, received a message that it was too long. Subsequent Clicks then take me to the profile page only. (Occurred less than 30 minutes ago). If I log off then log back on, can get at the status update again.
Do you have any plans to provide a searchable Groups Dircetory. Groups are of limited value at the moment. I assume that the intention with the Groups is to provide a way for people with similar interests to meet and connect via linkedIN ????
Keep up the great work!
Regards
Mark Cupitt
Scott Boutwell Feb 28, 2008
I would echo Ian's comments (above):
- the 'news' section is not relevant to me; would like to either remove, or, customize to get exactly the news topics that I want
- Groups: I am always interested in assessing new groups, so I would like to see additional functionality & visibility around this. For example, when I click on a group tag, I get invited to the group. Many times I just want to better understand what they are doing, before I make a decision to join. Also, it would be nice to be able to search groups by categories, etc.
Otherwise, nice job on the update; looks and works great.
Scott
Mark ONeill Feb 28, 2008
I don't like the new look at all. And if you plan to place video ads on a paid subscriber's home page, make it so that the video only plays the first time (or first ten times) in a session that one hits the home page. Playing the same video ad over and over and over and over again sucks. Give the option to switch back to the former interface. I used LinkedIn regularly and am really not happy with this development.
Sachendra Feb 28, 2008
Love the new changes, one gripe though, PLEASE provide an option is Account and Settings to "hide" the (annoying) news section
Bruce N. Goren Mar 2, 2008
The news "Beta Feature" is nothing more than an annoying clutter on my home page space unless you provide the tools to customize it, hide it, move it, or preferably - remove it.
Also, I use IE6 with the text size set to "LARGER". This was never a problem on LinkedIn until you switched to this new interface, now I have to scroll the screen horizontally or switch my text size back down to "Medium".
jrm Mar 2, 2008
Please add the ability to subscribe to an RSS feed of the network updates.
Also, if you must keep the news, please allow that window to shrink down to only a headline. But If I wanted news to display here, I would want to bring forward my Google-based news categories.
Paul Scheer Mar 4, 2008
The Company News has these problems:
1. It was introduced without warning or explanation.
2. You have arbitrarily selected exactly one (1) of the six (6) very public companies on my profile about which to feed me news. The last time I had anything to do with this particular company (Sony Pictures Entertainment) was three (3) years ago. Does that really make sense?
3. You have not provided any way for me to remove the news feed from this company or select any others.
SUGGESTIONS:
1. When you introduce a new feature, always announce it on the home page.
2. When you introduce a new feature that, in your heart of hearts you really believe will benefit your users, please entertain the thought that at least some may not be as excited about your handiwork as you are.
3. As a result of (2.) provide a very visible method to opt out.
4. If you find a larger than expected proportion of users are opting out, take advantage of the asymmetrical information you possess to conduct a random survey of both groups, those who opted out and those who continued to use -- or at least, tolerate -- the new feature. This is the most incredible opportunity for free market research that a company could ever want. Why not take advantage of it?
5. Every once in a while you might proactively survey your customer base to ascertain the value-added features they would most like to have.
6. And finally, with regard to the company news feature, the best thing you could possibly do with it is to make it a "subscribe to" option in the job profile. When adding or UPDATING a public company, among other things, prompt the user if they would like to subscribe to news about THIS company. That would turn a very visible plague into a value added option.
Paul Scheer Mar 4, 2008
Regarding the new status feature, while I was initially not sure that I would use it, I decided to give it a try. I thoughtfully composed a statement and typed it into the text box, only to be smacked with an error message that I had exceeded the size limit.
SUGGESTION: Any time there are size limitations to a data entry field, when in edit mode, indicate those limitations either onscreen or via a tool-tip on hover.
Encouraging someone to make a preventable mistake, just so you can ding them with an error message, is a very poor approach to design (in fact, it indicates a lack of conscious design; more like hacking followed by a bandaid).
Mark Cupitt Mar 5, 2008
Chris
A couple of additional comments for you guys to consider:
1. yes to being able to turn off the video. On a slower link, it is a real pain. If we have to look at it over and over again, at least make it amusing and rotate the videos :)
2. On the Side Navigation Bar, some form of indicator on Email, Groups, etc to notify you that there is activity and to go and look. ie: if there are any messages, put up a tick or group requests, etc. Saves a lot of unnecessary navigation
3. I have the same problem with the wide screen, have to go to full screen mode to see it all
4. RSS on Network Updates YES! Customizable, of course would be great.
5. News, would really like to be able to turn this off. I get all I want on Google
Otherwise, it is pretty easy to get used to the new look and feel. Most of the above is functionality.
Regards
Mark Cupitt
Valeria S. Mar 7, 2008
Very nice, but use it with Opera it's a "Sisyphean task"... Sometimes it isn't working even after 10.000 trials! Now I can't change my status!
David Lee Heyman Mar 11, 2008
In general I like the new look. However, the News section is a waste for me. I'm not interested in it and am getting nothing valuable from the news that is being presented to me. Unless there is some way to hide it or move it to a less central part of the page I will likely stop coming to LinkedIn as often as I do. I'm very interested in what is happening in my Network and what questions people are asking. It now is an effort to find these things because of the placement of the News. Please fix it.
David Gorsline Mar 12, 2008
Well, I've used the status feature to report what I'm working on this month. And twice my status has evaporated after about 7 to 10 days. Do you expect users to update their status on a daily basis?
thomas Martinuzzo Mar 12, 2008
Hello,
I just love the new look espacially the possibility to say what I'm doing now ("Thomas is working on smart antenna" for instance).
One comment: is to possible to do a search on that? I'd like to have the list of everybody who's working on smart antenna.
Glen McFarlane Mar 12, 2008
Love the new look and feel. I find myself spending much more time on the Home page than I used to.
The status is great, but ideally it could be linked to Twitter so it would simply pick up those feeds.
Please?
Thanks
Glen
Jeremy Epstein Mar 19, 2008
Love the new look. Very high value. Would love to connect status w/FB or Twitter though.
Chris Richman Mar 21, 2008
Hi, all! Sorry it's taken me so long to reply to your comments. I have been reading all of them, though. Let's see... where to start...
Status -- It does automatically reset after 5 days. The idea is for it to stay fresh and not become a permanent profile element (or get out of date if you forget to change it).
I like the idea of Twitter integration. I'll look into how much work it would take. Only a small % of our users twitter, but I can see how it would be great for those that do.
We also are thinking about making the status searchable. We want to spend a little time reviewing what people use the feature for to make sure it makes sense, but it's definitely something we're looking into.
I think the bugs that were mentioned above were fixed within a day or two of the release, but please let me know if you notice anything else strange.
RSS for Network Updates -- we rolled it out yesterday. I'll be doing a short blog post on it next week. Please let me know what you think!
The new website design -- Elliot is the Product Manager for that, but I've forwarded the feedback to him.
Groups -- we're definitely working on adding more groups functionality -- a lot more. Stay tuned.
News -- Jen is the Product Manager for that and I think she has commented on this on another post, but it's definitely a work in progress. We'll be adding more customization in the future.
I think that's it for now. As always, thanks for the great feedback!
Chris
Lee Mayer Mar 25, 2008
If by Groups you mean tagging that is great - if not - then the ability to "tag" a connection or someone you'd like to connect with would be great. Currently I rely on bookmarking the connection to enable easy find or search.
LM
Guy Rintoul Mar 26, 2008
Is there any way for me to get my status in a RSS/ATOM feed for inclusion on my blog, in other profiles etc?
Guy Rintoul Mar 26, 2008
@Chris Richman
How do you know that only a small number of your users Twitter? :) I suspect it may be a bigger proportion than you think!
Valarie Sobolewski Apr 11, 2008
I struggled with the new "Status" feature at first. You say now that it resets every 5 days? Every 5 of MY days or every 5 of YOUR days? Because sometimes I enter a status and it remains..... oh, 5 days - then sometimes I enter a new status (because I HAVE to) and it's gone the next day. Not good. Now I have to cut & paste my status write-up to notepad in case it goes away before I'm ready for it to go away.
User should have an option as to how long before "Status" resets.
malcolm stanley Apr 11, 2008
So the twitter thing in interesting as what many of us do is use twitter to announce status and Plaxo to sync it.
Separating these two functions is important.
I personally have status now at Twitter <-> Plaxo -> Facebook, here, and could if I chose have status in IM-verse as well at multiple points.
I believe you are already providing contact sync as a paid premium service with Plaxo. I wonder if starting with them would be an easier integration for you as they are already working with you and are nominal experts in sync, which is what you are really discussing here.
IOW, you already have a sync partner, why not use them?
Jos Burger Apr 12, 2008
Add all the functionality of TripIt and Dopplr.