linkedin

8 overused buzzwords to avoid on your LinkedIn profile

Who knew the world was so creative? That buzzword, "creative," is once again the world's most overused self-description on LinkedIn, as measured by descriptions in member profiles. Unless LinkedIn users are disproportionately creative, that wouldn't be the word most of us would use to describe most professionals we know (of course, all my colleagues are exceptionally creative and wonderful).

LinkedIn has released its analysis of the most commonly used adjectives (English and translated equivalents) in the "summary" section of profiles of its 187 million members (last year, the membership number was 135 million).

"… Read more

LinkedIn smashes Q3 earnings estimates

LinkedIn, the professional networking site that now has 187 million members, today posted third-quarter earnings that easily beat Wall Street estimates and raised its revenue guidance for the full year.

The company, which had strong growth across the board, saw revenue rise 81 percent from the year-ago quarter, to $252 million. Analysts had expected revenue of $244 million. Net income also was up, with LinkedIn posting earnings per share of 22 cents, twice what Wall Street had predicted.

Membership rose 6.9 percent to 187 million from 175 million at the end of the second quarter.

Shares of LinkedIn, which … Read more

Be up-to-date

TweetDeck for Mac now ships with a brand-new, well-designed user interface and a Twitter-for-Mac-like look, and it has multiple additional features that power users will love. By switching to HTML5, the developers have eliminated the need to continuously update Adobe Air, and now users can enjoy a neat app for reading, tweeting, and searching for specific topics of interest.

We liked how simple to use TweetDeck is. As soon as you set up your Twitter (or Facebook) account, you are off. While Twitter for Mac does a very good job for everyday use, it can't compete with this app'… Read more

Make yourself less vulnerable online (video)

Zappos, LinkedIn, eHarmony, Yahoo, LastFm, the Environmental Protection Agency, Stanford, and Columbia University -- all suffered online data breaches recently, says the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

In fact, this year alone, there have been 276 data breaches, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Statistics indicate that private sector businesses and the health-care industry were most vulnerable, falling victim to, respectively, 37 percent and 34 percent of the breaches. Educational institutions and the government/military sector had breach rates of 14 percent and 11 percent, respectively. The rate for financial companies came in at just more than 3 percent, according to … Read more

Facebook drops off the greatest places to work list

Marquee tech companies have always had a good rap of being great places to work: beautiful campuses, casual clothing, free food, and lunchtime workouts. But maybe that's not really the case?

A new list by company review site Glassdoor compiled the 25 best places to work for those trying to achieve an even work-life balance for 2012. And the results are surprising.

Of all well-known tech companies out there, LinkedIn, Orbitz, and CareerBuilder were the only ones to make the list. And for the first time, Facebook entirely dropped off the list. However, of the 25 companies, 12 were … Read more

LinkedIn shows Facebook how it's done, earnings-wise

Updated: 2:30 p.m. PT

It's the flip side of the Facebook story: A (relatively) newly-public Internet company with a story that Wall Street actually likes.

So it was that shares of LinkedIn rose about seven percent in after-hours trading after the company earned $2.8 million on $228.2 million in revenue during the second quarter. Revenue was up 89 percent over the same period a year ago.

Not accounting for special charges, the professional networking site earned 16 cents a share, in line with the consensus Wall Street estimate gathered by FactSet Research. Analysts had expected $… Read more

Twitter breaks up with Instagram, sort of

As Instagram users update their smartphones with the newest version of the photo sharing app that came out today, they'll see something missing: Find friends on Twitter.

Instead, they'll get a message that says this, "Unable to Find Friends. Twitter no longer allows its users to access this information in Instagram via the Twitter API. We apologize for any inconvenience."

According to TechCrunch, Twitter has decided to turn off its API for Instagram although other social apps, such as The Fancy and Foursquare, still get access.

There could be many reasons for this. It could be … Read more

LinkedIn spreads redesign effort to home page

LinkedIn continues to revamp its image with plans to roll out a new home-page design, the site revealed in a blog post today.

The new home page will feature more emphasis on shared news articles and posts, with what looks like enlarged photos and a more prominent display of comments, judging by the image in the blog post.

The post touts a "simpler and more modern design," with "more relevant updates" prominently showcased and a "cleaner, richer update stream."

The changes may make the site look more and more like a grown-up version of … Read more

LinkedIn hit with $5M lawsuit over lost passwords

An Illinois woman is leading the charge against LinkedIn in a $5 million class-action lawsuit that alleges the social network failed to protect its members' data.

The suit is a result of the recent security breach in which hackers stole thousands of passwords. The passwords ended up on a site accessible to the public.

Katie Szpyrka, a registered LinkedIn account holder since 2010, filed suit last week in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California, claiming LinkedIn violated its own privacy policies and user agreements by not following industry, ZDNet reported today.

LinkedIn spokeswoman Erin O'… Read more

eHarmony says no other info stolen following password hack

After confirming that member passwords were comprised, eHarmony said today it is continuing to investigate the incident, but it appears no other information was taken.

"While our investigation is ongoing, we have not found any indication that other information was accessed, nor have we received any reports of unauthorized log-ins to member accounts," eHarmony spokeswoman Becky Teraoka wrote in a blog post. "We have also been working with law enforcement authorities in our investigation and have been in touch with one of the other companies affected as well."

The blog post doesn't give specific numbers … Read more