Is VisiblePath the next LinkedIn?Business networking site LinkedIn may have new funding ( $12.8M in January from Bessemer and EFF) and a solid base (10 million members, growing at 130K new members each week), but that does not mean there's no competition. On the contrary, here comes VisiblePath. TechCrunch's Nick Gonzalez puts it this way: Silicon Valley-based VisiblePath is a lot like LinkedIn, but it automatically determines who your real network is, and how strong each individual relationship is, based on your emails and calendar items that involve them. VisiblePath will officially launch next week at the Web 2.0 Expo.
VisiblePath is engaging and insanely useful. It’s far superior to LinkedIn in measuring personal relationships, and it’s actually quite interesting to see just how close some of the people in your life actually are to you.
Commenter Roger Morgan disagrees: So it only works properly if you use Microsoft Outlook?
Personally, I think the whole idea of basing a networking tool on frequency of emails is complete crap. Most of my email traffic is with people in the same office (I work at a big bank and exchange a few emails every day with some people). Most of my useful contacts are from places I worked at previously. I don’t use my work email to keep in touch with these people, I use my private email address (which doesn’t change when I change jobs).
The reviewer says he’s polluted his LinkedIn account by including a lot of useless non-contacts. He concludes that LinkedIn is useless. The correct conclusion is that he’s made his LinkedIn account useless by his own actions. Tip to LinkedIn users: never add anyone to your LinkedIn contacts, if that person already has 100 or more contacts. You’ll just be adding a contact-collector like Mr Gonzalez. By leaving such people out, your network will grow much more slowly, but it will be useful.
The real killer, though, is that dependency on Microsoft Outlook. Not everyone wants to live their lives in the shadow of the Microsoft monopoly.
Whilst I will probably demo VisiblePath sometime soon, I'll probably stick to LinkedIn for now. I'd keep an eye on VP, however. More here: VisiblePath Is A Lot Like LinkedIn, Except It’s UsefulTechCrunchJoined-up ThinkingThe Economist Cybernetworking: Making the digital connectionThe Globe and MailWhen Outside the Loop, a Quicker Way to Get inThe New York TimesTechnorati Tags: social.networks, startups, linkedin, visiblepath
Friday, April 13, 2007
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