Since my post yesterday I found more discussion about LinkedIn. New York Times' David Pogue has a post questioning the point of LinkedIn.
This blog says LinkedIn has no value unless you are a professional recruiter or someone looking for a job.
I agree. LinkedIn is a great tool for recruiters and I think it's great if as a user I am trying to find a job or at least get more information on people who would be potentially interviewing me for a job. The problem is most people change jobs once every two years or even later. So that practically makes their LinkedIn profile dormant till then.
Considering how LinkedIn is becoming more of a recruiting tool than a business networking tool, maybe LinkedIn should consider going down that road. The company could integrate better with job sites. Maybe it could buy Simply Hired, a jobs aggregation site that I think is fantastic.
Maybe Monster.com could consider acquiring LinkedIn. I think it would be a great fit for Monster.com though as a LinkedIn in user I would probably hate it. I have been burned by too many spam-like recruitment mails from Monster.com.
Yahoo Hot Jobs could be another potential acquirer. LinkedIn could help Yahoo! get a targeted social networking site to compete with Facebook while, LinkedIn could gain from the integration with jobs.
Either way, LinkedIn's best bet going forward is to reinvent itself with a stronger sense of purpose. A business networking tool is just too broad to cut it anymore.
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Facebook Vs. LinkedIn
Facebook mania is currently sweeping the Valley right now. There's not a day when most of the tech blogs I am reading have something about Facebook.
I have been on LinkedIn much longer than Facebook. I started out using LinkedIn as my professional networking tool and FaceBook as a way to keep in touch with my friends from school.
But in the last few weeks I have found myself almost exclusively checking my Facebook page. To me, it has become much more exciting and useful than LinkedIn and here's why:
--LinkedIn feels like Web 1.0 and by that I mean a fairly static website with not enough interactivity between the user and the site. When I log into my LinkedIn page all I see is one kind of notification: Someone on my contact list has added a new connections. Every once in a while I will see questions posed by users but that's about it. No updates about their status, what they are upto, what they might be working on etc. That makes LinkedIn very boring. Most of my LinkedIn page is static, so it that of my friends. People don't change jobs for years and so I see no reason to visit their pages after a while. I am begining to find the whole introduction process to get linked with another person also very cumbersome. LinkedIn forces me bring up an email client to send emails to friends on that list. In Facebook I can do it all on the site itself.
--Lack of applications on LinkedIn.
Facebook has turned itself into a platform that allows developers to create new applications for the site. And I, like most of Facebook's users, have been having fun with that. I can applications like cities I have visited or play scrable or embed video--all of which keeps me interested and involved with the site.
On LinkedIn other than ask a question there's not much for me to see or do.
--Boring and predictable.
Surprise me LinkedIn! LinkedIn could do a few fun things once in a while to keep users interested. For instance, it could hand out five InMail introductions randomly every few months.That would get me excited and I could spend hours on the site looking for the five people I want to spend my precious InMail introductions on. I am sure the marketing team at LinkedIn can think of fun ideas like this.
LinkedIn has positioned itself as a business networking tool but business networking is about connecting with people and building relationships with them. I feel I am able to build those relationships when I get a sense of what the people looks like, what his or her passions here and get a better idea of the person behind the web profile. That's what Facebook gives me.
Facebook is no longer about just college students. Heck, the CEO and CFO of my company are on it!
LinkedIn has stopped innovating. It needs to bring some exciting new features in or I am completely moving to Facebook.
I have been on LinkedIn much longer than Facebook. I started out using LinkedIn as my professional networking tool and FaceBook as a way to keep in touch with my friends from school.
But in the last few weeks I have found myself almost exclusively checking my Facebook page. To me, it has become much more exciting and useful than LinkedIn and here's why:
--LinkedIn feels like Web 1.0 and by that I mean a fairly static website with not enough interactivity between the user and the site. When I log into my LinkedIn page all I see is one kind of notification: Someone on my contact list has added a new connections. Every once in a while I will see questions posed by users but that's about it. No updates about their status, what they are upto, what they might be working on etc. That makes LinkedIn very boring. Most of my LinkedIn page is static, so it that of my friends. People don't change jobs for years and so I see no reason to visit their pages after a while. I am begining to find the whole introduction process to get linked with another person also very cumbersome. LinkedIn forces me bring up an email client to send emails to friends on that list. In Facebook I can do it all on the site itself.
--Lack of applications on LinkedIn.
Facebook has turned itself into a platform that allows developers to create new applications for the site. And I, like most of Facebook's users, have been having fun with that. I can applications like cities I have visited or play scrable or embed video--all of which keeps me interested and involved with the site.
On LinkedIn other than ask a question there's not much for me to see or do.
--Boring and predictable.
Surprise me LinkedIn! LinkedIn could do a few fun things once in a while to keep users interested. For instance, it could hand out five InMail introductions randomly every few months.That would get me excited and I could spend hours on the site looking for the five people I want to spend my precious InMail introductions on. I am sure the marketing team at LinkedIn can think of fun ideas like this.
LinkedIn has positioned itself as a business networking tool but business networking is about connecting with people and building relationships with them. I feel I am able to build those relationships when I get a sense of what the people looks like, what his or her passions here and get a better idea of the person behind the web profile. That's what Facebook gives me.
Facebook is no longer about just college students. Heck, the CEO and CFO of my company are on it!
LinkedIn has stopped innovating. It needs to bring some exciting new features in or I am completely moving to Facebook.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
TheFind.com
After reading the news today that comparison shopping engine, TheFind.com bagged $15 million in series C funding I decided to check the site out.
I remember meeting Siva Kumar, the CEO of TheFind.com at a party last year. Siva and I were scheduled to have a greater discussion at the Red Herring office but I moved to TheStreet.com before we could make it happen.
I wish now that I had a chance to chat with him. I loved the site today when I tried it out. I use Google product search regularly but it is so bad I have almost given up on it. It amazes me that Google, which can do a pretty good job with web search, can't handle vertical search at all.
On TheFind.com I first searched for "quilt covers" and "gym bag", both products I am looking to buy. The results were great, neatly categorized by brand, price, and with excellent pictures.
Google's product search results for the same terms is terrible.
Meanwhile, Like.com, a "visual search" engine is going from bad to worse. I can never seem to find anything I want on it and I think it is just not an effective product.
It's an interesting comparison between TheFind.com and Like.com. The former is a low-profile company with a very exciting and effective technology while the latter was at one point a big Silicon Valley blogger favorite that I think just doesn't deliver the goods.
Google better watch out. In TheFind.com it has some real competition.
I remember meeting Siva Kumar, the CEO of TheFind.com at a party last year. Siva and I were scheduled to have a greater discussion at the Red Herring office but I moved to TheStreet.com before we could make it happen.
I wish now that I had a chance to chat with him. I loved the site today when I tried it out. I use Google product search regularly but it is so bad I have almost given up on it. It amazes me that Google, which can do a pretty good job with web search, can't handle vertical search at all.
On TheFind.com I first searched for "quilt covers" and "gym bag", both products I am looking to buy. The results were great, neatly categorized by brand, price, and with excellent pictures.
Google's product search results for the same terms is terrible.
Meanwhile, Like.com, a "visual search" engine is going from bad to worse. I can never seem to find anything I want on it and I think it is just not an effective product.
It's an interesting comparison between TheFind.com and Like.com. The former is a low-profile company with a very exciting and effective technology while the latter was at one point a big Silicon Valley blogger favorite that I think just doesn't deliver the goods.
Google better watch out. In TheFind.com it has some real competition.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Fake Steve Cracks Me Up
In just about a year, the Fake Steve blog has become one of the must-reads in Silicon Valley. I love the blog--it is funny, biting, self deprecating and most of the times it says the truth as it is.
Guessing the identity of Fake Steve has become a past time for many tech reporters I know. Yesterday, I read this hilarious, and a masterpiece of an interview that Fake Steve granted to an Indian web site.
It is so funny--I just love it.
A must read if you want a good laugh. It's even better if you understand if you understand some of the inside jokes that Fake Steve has made.
Here's the interview.
Guessing the identity of Fake Steve has become a past time for many tech reporters I know. Yesterday, I read this hilarious, and a masterpiece of an interview that Fake Steve granted to an Indian web site.
It is so funny--I just love it.
A must read if you want a good laugh. It's even better if you understand if you understand some of the inside jokes that Fake Steve has made.
Here's the interview.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The Lines Between Old and New Media are Blurring
Jim Louderback, the editor-in-chief of PC Magazine (which I think is as tech "old media" as it can get) will be the new CEO of Revision 3, reports my former colleague Liz Gannes at NewTeeVee.
At the same time, Veronica Belmont, who does video for CNET and who has made some recent appearances on CNET will be going to Jason Calacanis' Mahalo, says NewTeeVee.
With the lines between old and new media blurring, I wonder how long the blogosphere will hold on this demarcation of media.
Meanwhile, I am wondering is the use of a blogging software platform such as Wordpress or Typepad the only distinguishing characteristic of the blogosphere?
At the same time, Veronica Belmont, who does video for CNET and who has made some recent appearances on CNET will be going to Jason Calacanis' Mahalo, says NewTeeVee.
With the lines between old and new media blurring, I wonder how long the blogosphere will hold on this demarcation of media.
Meanwhile, I am wondering is the use of a blogging software platform such as Wordpress or Typepad the only distinguishing characteristic of the blogosphere?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Loving Widgets
I recently got a new laptop with Vista and discovered widgets or gadgets as they are called in Vista.
I have four gadgets in my Windows sidebar that I can't live without now: the clock, a sticky notes, a RSS feed box and a personal pictures slideshow.
Excited after some weeks of using the gadgets I tried adding a few to my blog (and promptly removed some of them). Yahoo!, I found, has a widgets channel, which is great except that when you try to download one widget you get a whole Yahoo! widget taskbar on your desktop. The Yahoo! taskbar itself is annoying since I didn't want it (I am looking to get just one widget!). It was difficult to move around on the desktop and I ended up uninstalling it along with widgets I had downloaded from the channel.
Anyway, I found on the Yahoo! Widgets channel that most widgets are variations of the four kinds that I already have on my desktop.
Meanwhile, Engagdet has Niall Kennedy write a column called Enwidget. So far it has a grand total of two posts.
Is the widget fad over?
I have four gadgets in my Windows sidebar that I can't live without now: the clock, a sticky notes, a RSS feed box and a personal pictures slideshow.
Excited after some weeks of using the gadgets I tried adding a few to my blog (and promptly removed some of them). Yahoo!, I found, has a widgets channel, which is great except that when you try to download one widget you get a whole Yahoo! widget taskbar on your desktop. The Yahoo! taskbar itself is annoying since I didn't want it (I am looking to get just one widget!). It was difficult to move around on the desktop and I ended up uninstalling it along with widgets I had downloaded from the channel.
Anyway, I found on the Yahoo! Widgets channel that most widgets are variations of the four kinds that I already have on my desktop.
Meanwhile, Engagdet has Niall Kennedy write a column called Enwidget. So far it has a grand total of two posts.
Is the widget fad over?
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
BlogHer in Chicago this year
Robert Scoble's post today about BlogHer, a blogging community for women, reminded me of my interview last year with Elisa Camahort, one of the three founders of the site.
BlogHer is having their conference this year from July 27-29 in Chicago.
Last year's conference in San Jose was a big hit and drew more than 700 attendees. And Elisa was really friendly and very accessible when I set out to do a story on the conference for Red Herring magazine.
What surprised me was not just the size of the community or how active it was but that many big name advertisers had realized the potential of that audience and were rushing to sponsor the event. You can see some of the fun schwag the attendees got last year in my story.
Good luck to BlogHer and all its attendees for this year's conference.
Here's the article I wrote last year after the BlogHer conference in San Jose. Since the link on the Red Herring website requires registration I am posting the whole story here.
She-Blogs
Hugs, kisses, and finely manicured feet were in abundance at Silicon Valley’s latest technology conference. But the 700-plus mostly female attendees of the second annual BlogHer conference weren’t there just to socialize.
Major advertisers like General Motors, Yahoo, and Johnson & Johnson were watching closely, eager to tap into a potentially big marketing opportunity. “This is probably the most important women’s media network,” says Elisa Camahort, president of events and marketing for BlogHer.
Indeed, 46 percent of bloggers in the United States are women, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project last month. “While women still aren’t writing and reading blogs as often as men, we’re catching up, especially when it comes to reading blogs at least weekly,” Charlene Li, an analyst with Forrester Research, wrote recently in her blog.
The number of attendees at this year’s BlogHer conference, held in San Jose, California on July 28-29, more than doubled over last year. BlogHer is hoping to leverage those numbers to transform itself into a powerful online presence.
The site’s 4,000 bloggers post on topics ranging from health, food and drink, religion and spirituality, to “mommy & family.” The Palo, Alto, California-based company, founded by Ms. Camahort and her partners, Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardins, launched an ad network for the site on June 1. The “Mommy Bloggers,” as many of the community’s members are known, are becoming a huge draw for corporate America, says Ms. Stone.
“Women control 83 percent of household spending,” she says. “Online, many of these women are having conversations about what they want to buy, what they want to read, and what they like—conversations that are difficult to find elsewhere.”
If you want to know what women really want, the BlogHer swag bag could offer clues. Among the items: a bib, a 64-MB USB JumpDrive, a fast food book, a notebook, a pen, and an Elexa condom.
BlogHer is having their conference this year from July 27-29 in Chicago.
Last year's conference in San Jose was a big hit and drew more than 700 attendees. And Elisa was really friendly and very accessible when I set out to do a story on the conference for Red Herring magazine.
What surprised me was not just the size of the community or how active it was but that many big name advertisers had realized the potential of that audience and were rushing to sponsor the event. You can see some of the fun schwag the attendees got last year in my story.
Good luck to BlogHer and all its attendees for this year's conference.
Here's the article I wrote last year after the BlogHer conference in San Jose. Since the link on the Red Herring website requires registration I am posting the whole story here.
She-Blogs
Hugs, kisses, and finely manicured feet were in abundance at Silicon Valley’s latest technology conference. But the 700-plus mostly female attendees of the second annual BlogHer conference weren’t there just to socialize.
Major advertisers like General Motors, Yahoo, and Johnson & Johnson were watching closely, eager to tap into a potentially big marketing opportunity. “This is probably the most important women’s media network,” says Elisa Camahort, president of events and marketing for BlogHer.
Indeed, 46 percent of bloggers in the United States are women, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project last month. “While women still aren’t writing and reading blogs as often as men, we’re catching up, especially when it comes to reading blogs at least weekly,” Charlene Li, an analyst with Forrester Research, wrote recently in her blog.
The number of attendees at this year’s BlogHer conference, held in San Jose, California on July 28-29, more than doubled over last year. BlogHer is hoping to leverage those numbers to transform itself into a powerful online presence.
The site’s 4,000 bloggers post on topics ranging from health, food and drink, religion and spirituality, to “mommy & family.” The Palo, Alto, California-based company, founded by Ms. Camahort and her partners, Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardins, launched an ad network for the site on June 1. The “Mommy Bloggers,” as many of the community’s members are known, are becoming a huge draw for corporate America, says Ms. Stone.
“Women control 83 percent of household spending,” she says. “Online, many of these women are having conversations about what they want to buy, what they want to read, and what they like—conversations that are difficult to find elsewhere.”
If you want to know what women really want, the BlogHer swag bag could offer clues. Among the items: a bib, a 64-MB USB JumpDrive, a fast food book, a notebook, a pen, and an Elexa condom.
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