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LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

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Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of the complaining about ghost towns isn't going to change the fact that G+ isn't going anywhere as long as Google stays as successful as it is right now.

Did anybody suggest that G+ should go somewhere before you did?

Yes. All of the threads above about ghost town imply that it needs to die off and Google should give it up and get rid of the service since they don't believe it is valuable, hence ghost-town. Ain't happenin'.

Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

#154
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By mobile you mean Android. In IOS, apps needs to explicitly ask the user to access the contacts after installing the app.

Ha, yes, yes I mean Android. I'd heard there was another mobile OS out there, but haven't ever used it. So I wonder if there's a measurable difference in the Linkedin graphs of iOS and Android users as a result of this? I guess only Linkedin knows...

Well, technically iOS only implemented the controls in the last year or two after the hubub with Path harvesting contacts:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/8/2785217/path-ios-address-bo...

Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

#155

Really surprised by all the comments here. This seems like a solid business decision by LinkedIn, riding the line of what a user is willing to accept and balancing it well with the potential rewards. Look at every famous company and you'll find tactics that you don't agree with, and sometimes downright illegal (Path). If you're not willing to do desperate things, to do what is necessary for user acquisition, good luc…

I've tried to explain this line of logic previously on HN and my experience is that the majority of the people here live in their own world. Much like people who enjoy reality TV, just more technically savvy. They babble about how FB decreases audience reach or how they hide their ad targeting instead of realizing the massive opportunity that is presented to the people who are willing to put the work. They besmirch g…

All I see here is a couple of people arguing that playing dirty should be compatible with being prestigious, and to that end suggesting that pushing ethical boundaries is literally synonymous with success. And since 'we' subscribe to a certain lifestyle, 'we' need a different morality from the nearest norm. Well, playing dirty is already prestigious in a lot of circles. What more do you want?

Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried to explain this line of logic previously on HN and my experience is that the majority of the people here live in their own world. Much like people who enjoy reality TV, just more technically savvy. They babble about how FB decreases audience reach or how they hide their ad targeting instead of realizing the massive opportunity that is presented to the people who are willing to put the work. They besmirch g…

That's because people usually put "morality" over "success of a business, even mine", and that's the world I want to live in. Your world has slaves (they're good business, after all).

Ultimately you can also generalize this. Specifically, there is a tug of war between the company and its users. By and large, the company interests may be served by exploiting as much user data as possible. The user usually sees this a bad. They want the company to be useful but without having to give up and privacy (or other negatives.) The user perspective only impacts the companies interests when enough negatives accumulate to create a negative reputation that stifles growth, but almost all users, ceteris paribus, would prefer the company to be less invasive. So these outrage-fests directed at LinkedIn, Facebook, Path, etc. serve to push back against companies and create the demarcation line between acceptable and unacceptable tactics.

Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

#157

Really surprised by all the comments here. This seems like a solid business decision by LinkedIn, riding the line of what a user is willing to accept and balancing it well with the potential rewards. Look at every famous company and you'll find tactics that you don't agree with, and sometimes downright illegal (Path). If you're not willing to do desperate things, to do what is necessary for user acquisition, good luc…

Can we simultaneously vilify LinkedIn and other companies that use (some would say morally questionable) growth hacking techniques and appreciate that they're still hungry, doing things that a desperate startup would do? I find the innovator's dilemma happens when you aren't hungry, or paranoid, or willing to cannibalize your existing product or users. Posit: There is no other dedicated professional social network th…

I'm not willing to accept shady moves just because you are startup. For one, there is no reason to think you will suddenly develop ethics once you become big company.

Second, I have been mislead the same way in both cases.

Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

#158
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of people who actively use g+ is miniscule [citation needed] Weak sauce, I say. It's readily apparent that they are the #2 social network in terms of actual usage. Put a status message on fb and ask how many of them use g+ Shall I also ask MySpace users how many of them use G+? Seriously, that "ghost town" bullshit simply isn't going to fly. It's been done to death, everybody's heard it, and anybody who is…

The reason the misconception is still around is because the group of people laughing about the ghost-towners on Google+ is so small to begin with that the general trend never gets corrected. In other words, because it's true ;) PS. I think you're using "weak sauce" incorrectly.

I think you're using "weak sauce" incorrectly

Not at all: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=weaksauce

Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

#159
post #148
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The number of people who actively use g+ is miniscule [citation needed] Weak sauce, I say. It's readily apparent that they are the #2 social network in terms of actual usage. Put a status message on fb and ask how many of them use g+ Shall I also ask MySpace users how many of them use G+? Seriously, that "ghost town" bullshit simply isn't going to fly. It's been done to death, everybody's heard it, and anybody who is…

Googlers like to think that G+ is one of the biggest social networks. The reason the reported numbers are so high is because now YouTube users have to integrate with G+ and all sorts of Google products funnel users in. These users do one thing, and never use the service again.

Google+ has loads of users who aren't doing that, though. I mean users who are there to use Google+, and not to use YouTube, Google Drive, Gmail, &c.

Re: LinkedIn is not using email contacts to find people who have an account already

#160
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? That's something I haven't heard of from a technical person in a very long while (if ever). LinkedIn's public image from the last 2 years: * 2012 hack. 6.5M unsalted SHA1 password hashes leaked [1] * 2013 Acquires Pulse, forces existing users to create a LinkedIn account. Users are pissed [2] * 2013 LinkedIn Intro. In case you missed it, it was an iOS app that changed your mail settings to proxy your incoming…

Why did you create a profile? If you don't want to connect with your professional network, if you don't care who looked at your profile (and are even spooked about it), if you (likely) don't use it to find people... What do you think is the purpose of having a LinkedIn account?

> Why did you create a profile?

1) The intent was to separate my personal and professional social presence: Facebook is no place for doing or talking business.

2) I was looking for work at the time.

3) I tend to try things out

> If you don't want to connect with your professional network, I never said that.

> if you don't care who looked at your profile Whether I care or not, I don't think the network should be reporting views to profile owners. I don't think I am alone in this either: Can you think of any other social network that does this? Would you go back to Facebook if it reported your every view to your contacts? Of course I'm spooked by this.

> What do you think is the purpose of having a LinkedIn account?

Not sure. I can eliminate a few things:

- Not finding employees. I'm supposed to pay for premium to be able to search properly and message people, and then (given my personal experience as a user) my message will be lost in the noise of irrelevant offers (who the hell thinks a PHP developer would be remotely interested/suitable for UI/UX, C++, Technical Writer, ... ? Mass mailers do). SO careers and behance has served me very well instead.

- Not finding work. Can I even separate my contacts into people-that-can-see-that-im-looking and people-that-shouldnt nowadays? If so, I'll call it progress. (My boss shouldn't know if I'm looking ffs)

- Not organizing contacts. One flat list of people?

- Not content. The majority of content I got to see was PR/HR kind of fluff that was almost exclusively cross-posted from elsewhere. None of my professional contacts actually generate content - that seems to happen on Twitter and G+.

I guess I use it as another online CV.

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