(Julian Summerhayes update posted this week to LinkedIn)

I’ve just returned from paternity leave to turn on my computer and find that LinkedIn has undergone yet another ‘upgrade’ in my absence.

Before I left I was giving very serious thought to moving away from blogging here on WordPress and doing more (or, for that matter, my first) posts to LinkedIn directly.

Undoubtedly the publishing platform was growing in popularity among those I respect – including my good friend Julian Summerhayes (who inspired this post) – and an ever increasing number of posts in my weekly newsletter were being published directly to LinkedIn (as opposed to republished, which was very common about a year ago).

It all made sense. Then.

With the ‘upgrade’, that’s all changed.

Why?

Because I hate this latest, so-called, ‘upgrade’.

Some of the things that have immediately off-sided me (and I have yet to have a proper look under the bonnet so to speak) with this latest upgrade include having to go to a separate widget if I want to view or post to my Group, not being able to see updates in real time, and being dependent on LinkedIn’s algorithms to read my preferences (it doesn’t).

In the real scheme of things these changes are not material or major. LinkedIn will survive the fallout.

More importantly what it shows me is this:-

LinkedIn has had a concerted and somewhat successful strategy of late to move itself away from being a modern form of CRM database to becoming a major player in the online world of content aggregation and publishing.

With these ‘upgrades’, in my opinion this strategy is dead in the water.

Linekedin is, once again, little more than an address book.

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