LinkedIn spotlights Microsoft as a premier advertiser and launches a new home page.
Things are heating up at LinkedIn.
Four days after
launching a mobile version of its professional
networking service, LinkedIn Feb. 28 launched a home page with a new "status"
feature that relays activities to users' networks.
In the Internet version of a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Microsoft is taking
over the LinkedIn home page as the premier advertiser. In a separate but
related move, outgoing
Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates has added
a LinkedIn profile.
The status feature will let users in a network know when the user is looking
for advice, planning a business trip or attending a conference. The status
information will be presented as a network update to the member's connections
and will appear as a new element on the member's profile page, according to a
company statement provided to eWEEK.
LinkedIn members will be able to control whether their status is visible to
their first-degree connections, second- and third-degree connections, or the
whole LinkedIn network. LinkedIn members will also be able to choose whether
they want to see statuses in their network updates feed.
The new home page will also include the beta of LinkedIn News, which
delivers news about a member's company, products, industry and competitors,
from more than 10,000 publishers and blogs.
Similar to the preferential approach of Digg and
Yahoo Buzz, LinkedIn News employs the wisdom of each
user's colleagues to determine the handful of articles that are the most
important to their business.
Microsoft's Gates is joining the redesigned LinkedIn and is asking users to
respond to this question: "How can we do more to encourage young people to
pursue careers in science and technology?"
The question, which was originally going to be about philanthropy, is sure
to draw no shortage of answers.
Another question is whether or not Gates will ultimately draw more LinkedIn
connections than former Microsoft blogger Robert Scoble, who boasts more than
5,000 friends on Facebook.
Microsoft's advertising takeover and Gates' newly added profile are signs
that LinkedIn's star is on the rise as it seeks to expand its 19 million-plus
user base.
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