LinkedIn.com Observations

I’m not the keenest user of online social networking services nor networking in general. I used to have more enthusiasm before my MBA.

During my MBA I was introduced to LinkedIn.com and dutifully invited some contacts and eventually quite a few of my Sauder MBA classmates. I stopped actively inviting people for the most part but I try to visit the website somewhat regularly to see if there are any interesting jobs posted. Despite losing enthusiasm I managed to reach 100 contacts in LinkedIn often because people contact me to ‘link in’.

Look them up on LinkedIn

Today I noticed another new feature or at least a more prominent placing or encouragement to use LinkedIn in a slightly different manner, so I took a screen snap and wrote this blog posting. Basically LinkedIn is encouraging members to investigate people before meeting them for the first time in the real world.

Googling

I’ve read and even seen on TV how people Google potential dates and Google in particular is used in recruiting to investigate candidates and potential employers. I often notice after I apply for a job someone Google’s my name and usually ends up at my resume. There is so much crap on my website someone is bound to find something they object to, but hopefully they find something that interests them first. Especially if they are possibly my future boss.

Nooping

“Hooping” as Jakob Neilsen has tried to term it will only become more and more prevalent as specialized tools get developed to investigate people using the Internet. Currently Google is the king of this niche, though they don’t seem to advocate their website for such a purpose. Stalkerati is a mashup of other search engines to investigate a person online and now LinkedIn.com, one of the professional online social networks, is encouraging people to effectively spy on each other.

Online Voyeurism

Online voyeurism is alive and well, I’ve heard it referred to as creeping, there was the whole CreepShots fiasco. I try to avoid even the appearance of doing this, but I know some of my MBA classmates spied on me in the past through my postings here and elsewhere online. If any of them are still reading my blog, they should enjoy their handiwork. If you thoughts on this you can leave them below.

This entry was originaly posted on November 27th, 2006, it was last edited on March 10th, 2019 and is filed under: Technology and tagged: Creeping, Google, Jakob Neilsen, LinkedIn, Search Engines.