LinkedIn, like the best social networking sites out there, includes a feature that makes it easy to find people that you may know. These are usually based off of either mutual friends, past schools or past employment. This works reasonably well, but it could always be made better to make the experience more visual.
LinkedIn seems to have had those same thoughts and is updating its “People You May Know” feature. The update will be rolling out to users over the next few weeks, but the LinkedIn blog gives us a sneak peak of how it will look.
This is how the current “People You May Know” tab looks like. It’s serviceable and it gets the job done. It doesn’t look that great, but functionality is more important than aesthetics.
Now check out the preview of the new design. It already looks a whole lot better. It’s always amazing what a little bit of visual flair and columns can do for a design. As you can see, the person’s picture is now the main focus of the profile preview. You probably also notice the top row of companies and schools that are now easily searchable via picture instead of just text.
Not all of the changes are on the surface, however, with the LinkedIn team making changes to the algorithm that powers this particular feature. The “People You May know” tab will now connect you with people based on factors like “your existing network, past workplaces, and where you’ve gone to school.”
While the actual update will be rolling out over the next few weeks, you can start using the new version right now. It’s currently in beta so there might be bugs, but that’s what a beta is for.