A few months ago I wrote that it would not surprise me at all if LinkedIn dropped the groups feature. Now it appears that they’ve dropped one of the big attractions of groups for many people: the ability to connect with people via groups you’re in together.
As this post describes, a big plus of LinkedIn groups has been the ability to connect with people via a group you’re both in. Now, however, and true to LinkedIn quietly dropping features with no explanation or notice, that feature has been removed. You’ll notice that if you go to send a connect request to someone in a group, where there used to be a “group” dropdown choice under “how do you know X,” there’s now just…not that option anymore.
Maybe not that huge a deal, but to me, this is yet another indication that LinkedIn doesn’t really care about groups and is fine with taking away features that mean nothing to LinkedIn but mean a lot to users. After all, with the acquisition of Bizo in July, LinkedIn revealed their future vision for the platform: “Our long-term ambition is to build an integrated marketing and sales platform that provides a simple and effective way to reach audiences, nurture prospects, and acquire customers.” Doesn’t really sound like “enabling users to connect with each other” and/or “community” are part of that vision.
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