Over the past few months, LinkedIn made some significant changes to its homepage, offering a cleaner, easier to navigate interface for its users. Now LinkedIn has announced it will be rolling out a new real-time notification feature letting users know when someone has viewed their profile, “liked” a comment or post, accepted a connection, among other things. The new feature will allow LinkedIn users to stay better connected with contacts they’ve made through the site – all while encouraging them to spend more time on the site.
The company writes: “This new feature is all part of our ongoing effort to make it easier to keep engaging discussions going with your network.”
What will it look like? Well, it will be highly reminiscent of Facebook’s current notification setup. A flag will be added to the site’s navigation bar, and a red circle will appear if a user has new mail, comments, likes, accepted connections, etc.
And while many are excited to see LinkedIn move beyond its business image, some are also questioning the update, claiming the new feature isn’t fitting for the workplace social network. Despite the fact that users will never miss an update to a discussion or a new comment, the notifications could also prove to undermine a professional’s productivity.
The notification feature has already been added to LinkedIn’s website, but it may take a few weeks for it to be added to all users’ accounts. The company says it will be adding the feature to its iPhone, iPad, and Android software in the future, as well.
Sources:
http://www.readability.com/read?url=http%3A//www.wired.com/business/2012/09/facebook-should-fear-this-linkedin-news/
http://startuphood.com/2012/09/05/linkedin-goes-all-facebook-with-its-new-notifications-feature-showing-likes-comments-and-more/
http://njuice.com/5TUP
http://techtites.com/2012/09/06/linkedin-adds-notifications-next-step-towards-a-better-social-networking-experience/
Notifications screenshot: LinkedIn
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