Picture this - LinkedIn adds profile photos
Mike Butcher
47 comments »
On Friday LinkedIn plans to allow profile photos on its business-focused social network, in a move which reflects its increasingly international focus.
It’s taken four years for LinkedIn to add photos, when every other social network has done it forever. The site for business professionals has always kept a conservative, business-like tone. But although it says the decision has been driven by members, LinkedIn could not have escaped noticing that business people are using sites like Facebook to network both personally and for business. Adding photos ticks a box marked ‘we can be as friendly-looking as Facebook too guys’.
In other Facebook-like moves, LinkedIn has improved its groups feature recently and an open API for developers is said to be on its way.
However, the formal tone will be maintained. Only one picture will be allowed and users will be able to block those outside their network from seeing it, as well as being able to block photos from other users.
The decision on photos will go down well in Europe, and especially in London, which I can confirm has become Facebook obsessed, and where people never quite got LinkedIn’s conservatism. European business networking sites like Xing - which allows photos - have benefited from a less locked-down approach.
LinkedIn says it has 14 million users a month, with up to 250,000 new users every week.
Changes is always necessary for improvement, linkedin is also trying to make it useful in all respect.
I have always wonder why theres no profile photo. Its a problem when a few people shared he same first and lastname.
Definitely about time. I think it’s a great move on their part. I’m sure they had adequate reasoning for keeping it off this long though.
I hope that ths is first step to make linkedin more useful…
Linked in is soooo borring. Everytime I go on this site it reminds me of black and white yellow pages. Linkedin is like a strong sleeping pill. It always makesw me sleepy! At least in the yellow pages they have some color!
Xing is for fat Germans that do not speak english. This is the “Hallo i am zee Hans aus Belin ja i like snaps und bradworst” type of crowd with oversized Posche design glasses and big fans of hard core pornography.
I can’t believe Tech Lunch writes about adding profile photo’s to a site. Oh my god they added pictures to profiles!!!! beam me up scotty, get the bat mobile Robin. This is an absolute pointless article. If you don’t have anything good to write about take the day off.
Can you please respond and explain why this is a big deal? Linked in is retarted for even bringing it up.
Booooooooh
It seems like linked in and tech Munch are not the only retards on the site. Check out my spelling above “retarted” lol
Business people are generally extroverts and hense successful in bsiness where mostly introverts are a misfit.
http://tekno-world.blogspot.com
Finally!
I wonder what their return rate is and if old users will pick up on adding their picture.
A shame, by focusing on the text (your credentials) you were forced towards not making a quick decision (e.g. this person doesn’t look like the type of person I’d work with).
@Mo: my concern is people will feel the need to add photos. *If* most people add photos, then a user comes across a profile without one, will they think, a) this person hasn’t added one or b) what is this person hiding.
.. personally I think this is taking the focus off your credentials.
@Laurence: if this isn’t your sort of news, go elsewhere. Problem solved.
Feeling like yours,
Profile photo is a very good addition. It is easier to recognise the person than the name.
OOOOH! Profile photos!
What next: buttons? text? indentations?
Photos are cool, I better put some makeup on!
Adding photos is an interesting move. I guess this could have been done jsut to draw attention to the fact that they released an open API and less about the actual story of adding photos. We’ll see I suppose.
If you ask me, XING is much better than LinkedIn (not only because, beeing in Europe, I find far more people that I am interested in):
The way it handles invitations, it’s search functions, the layout and not least: the pricing: it costs about 20 USD / quarter (where LinkedIn starts at 20 USD per month - still wondering who pays 200 USD per month just to be able to send a bit more private messages / introductions).
Aren’t photos something to be avoided when it comes to recruiting?
I had always heard that employers shouldn’t catch even a passing glimpse of their potential candidates before that first in-person interview–because the perception/possibility of discrimination comes into play.
As a job seeker myself, I have to oppose this new feature. I want employers to be forced to judge me on my skills and experience, not my appearance.
They’ve also re-activated their groups function. I don’t think anyone has mentioned that yet.
i second JSON up above - posting photos presents a serious risk for those recruiters using the site to solicit referrals or passive leads…this is the same issue that applies to the use of videos in recruiting - race based selection prevails (either goals or whatever)…google should love this though, they have no women and very little racial diversity going on…
exactly Json. Anyone mystified by the ‘no photos’ policy has never had to navigate EEO laws. Having said that…now what? Has LinkedIn just tainted it’s network as a recruitment tool?
I remember the posts last Spring proclaiming linkedin’s death and facebook’s ascendance. At the time, I thought that this was the dumbest thing ever. Yet, since then I’ve probably logged into linkedin 3 times and facebook almost daily. Perhaps it’s just a Valley thing, but I predict that this annoucement will mark the moment when linkedin jumped the shark.
Deadpool predictions anyone? I’m certain there will never be a linkedin IPO. Most likely outcome: a buyout so a more aggressive company can mine linkedin’s data. Time to go re-read that privacy policy…
NetHooks ( http://www.nethooks.com ) will release a private beta starting tomorrow. Basically it is like a 2007/2008 version of Linkedin with a lot of advance features. It provides an option to upload a private/personal profile in addition to a professional profile. You can upload multiple photos and you can choose who gets to see your personal profile. That way, a recruiter gets to see your professional profile and not even know that you have a personal profile that you are sharing with your friends, colleague and college mates. There are more features listed on our blog.
For Linkedin, photos are optional. If there is no photo, the text should wrap around the area thus preventing it from looking ugly with a default image. Linkedin users are mostly older and set in their ways and they are their paying customer as well. They can’t make changes easily without upsetting or confusing their users. So innovation on Linkedin is a lot slower than other sites. So check out Nethooks.com ..we are releasing out private beta tomorrow.
LinkedIn is basically a resume database, very different from FB. When did adding photos to a webpage become news?
http://www.congoo.com- Congoo Vertical News Communities
Everyone complaining about “adding pictures is not news” needs to look at the context. No, site X adding profile pictures is not news. But when a large site that has resisted doing so for four years adds pictures, it represents a major shift in the site’s philosophy, and thus qualifies as news.
I agree with Ash. LinkedIn seems to be a resume database. What is the purpose of being on there unless you are looking for a job? Exposure? I have gotten more clicks to my website from facebook in the past week then I have from linkedin in the past 12 months.
Will this have an effect on the job hunt aspect? Usually employers do everything they can to not know what you look like ahead of time, lest they get hit with a discrimination suit.
can you really build relationships with people you find in linked in? or it is a FYI wall?
I guess if you have an attractive appearance and don’t look too young or too old, you should upload your image. For all other users, I would stay clear of making a bad impression. As far as Ash’s comment…I agree, this is hardly news.
another breaking news!
yahoo is now bolding their copyright sign at the footer of their page. they should have done it years ago, what took them so long!!
Now if they’ll just get those photos to sync with Outlook via their plugin, that’d be great!
Another unofficial dating site…. (Xing.com already made that mistake).
lol marcT…you should be at Valleywag
For a business only network ( You would hardly go to LinkedIn to find a date ) the pros are that if you find a business partnership it is easy to recognise the person when you meet them.
For employment as one of my friends said ” What if you dont employ the right person because of the way they looked and what if you employ the wrong person because of the way they looked”
I look good.
This is a great move on LinkedIn’s part, helps me to determine when finding contacts if I have the right person.
Just tried uploading a small photo: “We are sorry. There was a problem uploading your photo.”
evolve or perish. Darwinism in action.