LinkedIN Gets Pretty

February 28, 2008 · Comments

newLinkedIN

LinkedIN is a necessary tool in your business arsenal. It’s a professional-minded social network, centralizing their activity around the “build your profile, and then connect up with people who matter to you” activities. LinkedIN isn’t exactly FUN. It’s business-y, and you can use parts of it to ask questions, develop relationships, fulfill needs, find employment, and more, but if someone says, “Hey, I’m going to spend a half hour working on my LinkedIN profile,” I’d be surprised.

So the fact that they gave themselves a nice facelift, added personal photos to the site, and have quietly added some new functionality, comes as a pleasant bonus.

Social networks are apparently blue. LinkedIN, to their credit, has always been blue. Facebook: blue. MySpace, blue. But did LinkedIN get somehow blue-er? Not sure. The design is clean, crisp, and has just a slight bit of a widget feel to it. I like it.

What I like more? Even more information visible to me.

What’s your take? Have you logged in? Do you like it?

Are we already connected? (If not, you’re invited to email me a connection request).

Love to hear your thoughts.

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  • Thanx for reminder. I like the new look of linkedIn.
    but...

    what a suprise

    Not only linkedIn, but also Chris website gets pretty :) I like it!

    I keep on forgetting to jump out of my rss reader and check out not only content of the website but also context ;)
  • I'm actually finding that I'm spending more time on it after the redesign. I'm trying to answer more questions and I'm taking the time to poke around more often.
  • Sonny Gill
    I enjoy it for the most part.

    The only dislike I have is with the blue headers on the profile page, Q&A, and other features. It loses its fluidity with that header, especially with the profile page because it adds another set of tabs (edit/view profile). As a user, that can be confusing. Regardless, I'll continue to use it:)
  • Chris,

    LinkedIn is my favorite of all the networking sites for the very reasons you mention - it is "business-y", which I read as "not juvenile" (no beer drinking stories, no fart jokes).

    I like the new layout but it took me a while to locate the "Your Network" page (it has been moved from the People section to the Contacts section).

    By the way, if you are a food enthusiast, I have a question up on LinkedIn right now about the increasing cost of food & how it affects behavior.

    -Shannon Ehlers
    Check out my profile at
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonehlers
  • Actually I *DO* spend a lot of time on my profile. I ditched my CV two years ago, and now LinkedIn is my CV (ok, well I have a hard copy of my LinkedIn profile on my PC).

    For me this works well. I have my CV online and in a way that I can easily maintain and update it. The CV can be viewed by whoever might be interested, without me having to mail or send it to anyone.

    I would agree with the other comments above about the duplication of status information. What we really needed from LinkedIn was integration with (at minimum) Facebook/Twitter but potentially with other social media tools.
  • Definitely crisper looking - i noticed it yesterday afternoon, very pleased!
  • Hi Cris,

    I had the same impression they have a layout similar to Facebook. Better organized and without all those crazy gizmos :) I do like the way the information is structured now, it's easier to see what interests you.
  • Speaking of bugs - your LinkedIn profile badge here (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/418/495) leads to a 404 not found on LinkedIn. Hmm?
  • Chris - saw the change bright this morning, and it's definitely cleaner, but being such a heavy user, it's going to take a bit to get used to things.

    As I comment over on my blog though - why are they adding their own status area (ala Facebook and Twitter's "what are you doing now?")? And why can't we pipe in status from elsewhere (Twitter->Facebook)?

    Lots of little usability issues like that to this new released, although I notice they took the site offline for upgrading tonight, so maybe they're already jumping on this.

    Between the facelift and mobile access recently though, it's great to see LinkedIn getting modernized. There's hope yet!
  • Love linked in and have also been exploring some of the other business networking sites to see which ones are most effective.

    Great way to network during non business hours.
  • Looks great, I like it!
  • Staci
    I actually just joined LinkedIn last week. I had seen its layout before and this is a step up. It's more user friendly!
  • I can't believe they still haven't made it possible to login from the index page...
  • Ken Cring
    I like it. A bit easier to find items. A few more little bells and whistles. I'd like to make the "News" section either more relevant to my interests or be able to shut it off though. It's also nice to see Bill Gates asking the community a question. Yo Bill!
  • I noticed the new layout this morning. It does look good. I went ahead and sent you an invitation too.

    Cheers,
    social media mom
  • I like the redesign a lot, think that they learned some lessons from a lot of other sites out there including, Flickr, Facebook and others.. They are funnelling relevant news to me on the home page. Profile photos, even status are useful.. it is a bit of a mashup of useful features now, not just a resume socnet. It makes LinkedIn come off as focused on their customers IMHO.
  • I just joined LinkedIn so I never saw the old layout before. I am not convinced I will use it that much neither, but I said "What the hell!" and did it anyway...
  • Hadn't seen the new changes. Thanks. Their logo was the same blue, but the background was a soft yellow before. It looks even more business than before. But in a good way.

    Cheers,
    Connie
  • My first thoughts are they used Facebook as a best practice with those updates. I think Facebook and LinkedIn are much better organized now.

    Simplicity is very important to me, as well as others.
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