Comments on: Facebook to Turn LinkedIn into LinkedOut?

By: Jay (living in First Life)

Jay (living in First Life) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:56:21 +0000

Duncan is also the person who said that all the people who matter have left Myspace for Facebook. Right.

By: dave mcclure

dave mcclure — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:56:23 +0000

don't know if i agree with the analysis above and/or the comments... you're right, LinkedIn is still the defacto place i go for "business" social networking, however it's also noticeable that i've recently been getting Facebook invites from business types that i'd have normally expected to get LinkedIn invites from. hmmm. In any case, i will say that i think LinkedIn shouldn't get complacent, and should try to figure out ways (as with SimplyHired) to differentiate and offer more verticalized features. in particular, an interesting strategy to pursue might include LinkedIn developing business networking Facebook Apps. see my post for more on this subject. - dave mcclure

By: Drama 2.0

Drama 2.0 — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:37:08 +0000

It’s funny. After I gave him some advice about distinguishing between fact and opinion, I thought that it’s probably not in my best interest to have done so. His posts serve as the basis for some good content. I’m sure he won’t listen to me anyway.

By: Michael Camilleri

Michael Camilleri — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 12:27:50 +0000

I’ve got a theory: Are you actually Duncan Riley, Drama? How many posts on this site would go if he weren’t around to keep writing stories like this.

By: Eran

Eran — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 12:27:23 +0000

Wonderful post, in agreement.

I still do not understand the total hype of the Facebook platform. I do understand it is a social network platform that allowes an enormous thing to rise, but I have many times asked “where is the actual value?”
The word value is used by me to represent utility, something that is tangible and concrete. It seems that Facebook and Myspace are answering to some of these by the ‘club scene’, music and the such that people mention, but again, that is pure social. For business, the credibility I place is with LinkedIn. For me, I look at LinkedIn as my Facebook – the place I enjoy reading other professional writings, resumes and contacts of people in the same industries, the recommendations that have actual relevant backing, and more. With the social networks, it is not how many you have seen in the past.
C’mon, the vanity in social networks is to build your list to give you a social podium to stand and be seen. On LinkedIn, I have contacted people that I may have never met, but have actually assisted me by their expertise and vice versa.
Moreover…as mentioned, LinkedIn are generating revenues from clients willing to pay for their services…kind of shows how much value the actual users believe they are receiving.
For me, that illustrates a powerful website that is concrete.

Eran

By: Mike Rundle

Mike Rundle — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 05:32:04 +0000

The biggest fallacy in the comparison is that Facebook and MySpace do not exactly cater to the “executive crowd” the way LinkedIn does. If I’m trying to find old colleagues from the Defense Dept. where I used to work back in the day, I’m not going to go to Facebook. In fact I can already tell you where I’d go, because those old colleagues have hit me up on LinkedIn more than a dozen times already.

Finding qualified applicants to fill jobs, networking with others in your profession/industry, those are areas that LinkedIn does and does very well, and I can’t see Facebook putting together a compelling offering simply because Facebook is not the way to reach CEOs of companies, senior Java developers, usability researchers, and it never will be. Slapping a LinkedIn-type “application” into an iFrame on a random Facebook page is not going to bring LinkedIn to its knees.