LinkedIn's New App Has Helpful Hints

TalentZoo.com | Flack Me | Digital Pivot | Beneath the Brand

Archives | Categories

By: Jessica Cherok

Have a big meeting coming up? You should consider looking to LinkedIn for some helpful, pre-meeting advice.

LinkedIn is launching its new app, which is supposed to be smarter and more helpful via “anticipatory computing.” The new technology prompts users with helpful information about LinkedIn members, as well as integrates with smartphone calendars. This integration allows for updates and reminders to be sent ahead of upcoming meetings and appointments.

LinkedIn touts the new app as being “very familiar with your network,” meaning it’s smarter and more informative than previous app versions. Of the new contextual learning platform, LinkedIn says, “The vision behind that is trying to learn the context of members and reacting in a way that’s helpful. Pre-meeting intelligence is a classic example. You could see this getting better and better in terms of how we can help a member proactively.”

The idea is to head off LinkedIn members from having a behemoth connections list that is too vast to be useful. The new algorithms make the network smarter, and thus member’s networks more relevant. But the professional networking site isn’t stopping there. The company is also considering adding in GPS features, which would allow members to connect with other network members who happen to be nearby.