The New LinkedIn Homepage

It's official. The new version of the LinkedIn homepage is now in beta test. LinkedIn has decided to change its homepage format to make it a little bit cleaner and more interactive. The idea behind the site is still the same - it is a place to bring professionals together so that they can meet new people and organize their network.

There are a few areas that are the focus of this change - a change to the overall format, news articles that relate to you and your business, updates from your network, and customizable modules that you can personalize. The idea is that these tools help enhance the fact that it is a social networking site and gives its users a reason to log in more frequently. LinkedIn designed the new site with the user in mind. They want to enhance the current user experience by adding new features.

Change in the Format

The most dramatic change is in the way the homepage itself is designed. The colors and the design make certain areas stand out more than others. Here is the top navigation bar. You will quickly notice that the familiar blue tabs are gone, but don't worry they reappear as soon as you go deeper into the site.

This feature is new. It displays headlines from the business world that pertain to the user, their profession, and company. In the beta version, this feature relied on its own algorithms. This means that the user doesn't need to do anything to display the headlines. The algorithm is designed to find the articles that you'd likely be interested in reading.

The new version of the Network Updates feature on LinkedIn has been streamlined and is now sorted chronologically. If you don't have time to review all of your network updates daily, now you can review them at your convenience because you have a full month's worth of history.

LinkedIn has added a personalized module concept that is an advanced feature of this networking portal. There are only three module types available right now; Jobs, People and Answers, but LinkedIn is promising to add many more. Each of these modules is explained below but it is important to note that you can create and display several modules of each type or display none at all.

The Jobs module allows you search for specific job titles in your chosen location

The People module allows you to create an ongoing search for people with specific job titles in the company you specify

The Answers module allows you to display open questions for any category on LinkedIn Answers.

Overall, these site updates are designed to enhance the user experience by providing additional value. They are also designed to encourage users to login more frequently and attract new users to use the site. If you're already familiar with LinkedIn you know that it continuously changes over time. This time the changes are a little more dramatic but you will get used to them and come to rely on them in no time at all.