The professional social media network LinkedIn has been implementing subtle updates on its interface of the past months, but some are thinking that they might be moving a little too close to Facebook.
LinkedIn has developed their almost 100 million users because of their unique brand—they are made for professionals and for professional networking.
Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn’s profile information focus on what a person has professionally done—the user’s educational background, charity affiliations, influencers, work experience and more.
LinkedIn has a similar connectivity function with Facebook. It has a share option. It also has the Facebook Notes features which has evolved to LinkedIn pulse, a stream of articles written by LinkedIn members.
It has “Like,” “Comment” and “Share.” However, the content distributed on the LinkedIn platform is widely different from Facebook. Facebook caters to a variety of stories. They were even attacked after it was discovered that their interns were the ones handling the algorithm for trending topics on the users’ timeline. For LinkedIn, most of the stories are about business, productivity and other related matters.
As LinkedIn ventured into improving their interface and functionality, many are worried that they might be going too close to Facebook’s ethos.
Last year, LinkedIn launched its Groups redesign live alongside the iOS app redesign.
iOS users will be able to experience the new LinkedIn Groups standalone app. After you log in, you’re shown multiple options. The first is highlights, which shows you engaging discussions from each group you belong to. If that same discussion happens to be in multiple groups, highlights will only surface it once. Every day will have new highlights, and you can engage with that discussion right from the app.
Earlier this year, they are also sending out subtle changes on the web version of LinkedIn. The colors have been modified to mostly white. Additionally, the LinkedIn Pulse has a clearer view because they removed the continuous articles sidebar.
The LinkedIn Pulse now looks like Facebook’s instant articles with about three suggested articles at the bottom.
Visually, the LinkedIn Pulse is a pleasure to look at. However, since it would still boil down to their main branding, users are wondering why there have been many similarities with Facebook.
So far, LinkedIn is trying to filter out spam posts. Their timeline algorithm is more authentic than Facebook’s and the balance of promoted posts is still friendlier.
The redesign might be quite similar to Facebook, but LinkedIn seems to be doing a better job in providing raw interaction between users.
Since user interface seems to be playing a big role in any social media platform nowadays, LinkedIn might just be moving towards the future.
Zero Agency even has their own take on what they would like LinkedIn to look like “just 10 years from now.”
The democratization of work is powered by digital ecosystems. LinkedIn is one of them. Our concept for LinkedIn considers how we might undertake business in the future. How we become who we are within the landscape of professional development.
In their prediction, LinkedIn might be introduce a live communication platform just like Facebook live chat or Facebook Messenger. The prediction even has a calling feature.
LinkedIn has no specific announcements on their web-based redesign, but when the iOS redesign happened, LinkedIn’s Product Lead for Groups Minal Mehta told Venturebeat that they want the platform to be more engaging.
The world has changed. The way people converse has changed. How do we take the opportunity to make the product the best it can be based on where the world today?
[Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images]
