Comment by Martin Gibbons on March 26, 2012 at 9:53am

There is always Viadio.com but I think it has been pushed aside by LinkedIn. And you are right they are creating a monopoly situation and increasingly eating everyone's lunch.

Comment by Ralph Steeber on March 26, 2012 at 10:08am

Hi Becky, Nice article and I agree with your comments completely. Ralph

Comment by Carly-Anne Fairlie on March 26, 2012 at 10:29am

Very interesting.  LinkedIn is also moving to block the API integration of some CRM platforms.  We were notified last Thurs. Mar 22 by our CRM provider that LinkedIn would be blocking their API Integration the following day, after a few hundred emails from other customers using the same CRM platform they have extended it until March 30 - but it may still leave us out in the cold and looking for an alternative.

Comment by Mike Auton on March 26, 2012 at 10:32am

I got the very same email this moring and was horrified by the questions! You can see just where this is heading and it fits with the fact that they are now a listed company and a number of greedy individuals are looking to earn as much cash as they can! God help us if they implement any of the items on the survey. One of which was would you pay$50 per month for account which only allowed you to search on your 1st level contacts or would you prefer to pay $900 per month instead? (my words not theirs).

Comment by Ken Forrester on March 26, 2012 at 10:40am

I am originally from Jamaica and I visit very often.  This LinkedIn trend is similar to the tourism Industry. The trending model for vacationers is all-inclusive hotel arrangement.  The majority of the cost of vacation packages (airline, room, food, entertainment) is spent in other countries.  Those funds are not spent with local Jamaican economy- the vendors/citizens-who are the very attraction that was advertised for these exotic vacations.  So the all-inclusive hotels are basically using the local merchants and citizens while restricting their access to do business with visitors to the island. 

LinkedIn has become the all-inclusive version of the staffing Industry.  They offer a free service to collect actionable data from recruiters (free users)  and sell that data as recruitment packages to paying customers.  If you are not on the paying customer side of the table-you are their product.  I see your concern- as this trend continues, recruiters will get squeezed just like the local vendors. 

Comment by Jacob Share on March 26, 2012 at 11:09am

It comes with the territory. Most LinkedIn users are there for free which means that LinkedIn has to look for ways to earn from them. You may not like it but it's not surprising.

On the other hand, competition drives innovation. I would love to see a competing network make a serious run at LinkedIn but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe Viadeo as Martin pointed out, or maybe Xing can turn around.

Comment by Suresh on March 26, 2012 at 11:10am

This is a common dilemna for companies. In order to grow they offer services for free and then they try to reel it in. Interesting, looks like this is not the first time linkedin has blocked API access to others.

Not surprised at all..

Comment by Irina Shamaeva on March 26, 2012 at 11:43am

This is interesting info to digest, thanks for sharing! But LinkedIn is not a job board at all. It will not become one if it adds recruiter-centered functionality.

With all of its deficiencies (and I am as unhappy about them as many others) LinkedIn has become the top source of candidates, especially in terms of potential candidates responding to our messages.

There are two major differences, as I see it:

1) Job boards have resumes (vs. profiles that are not filled out completely) and 2) on job boards recruiters and candidates are on the "opposite" sites and can't view each other as members of a network.

Sure, LI's growing limitations are frustrating to all. But so far there are so many great ways to use LinkedIn for sourcing. Hope it remains this way.

Comment by Suresh on March 26, 2012 at 1:00pm

Linkedin has shown their concept is quite attractive to jobsekers and employers/recruiters. There is something for everyone but doesn't guarantee to be the only game in town (remember myspace anyone)

Comment by Christopher Perez on March 26, 2012 at 1:13pm

Goes without saying (but I'm saying it anyway because I just did it) that now would be a good time to export your LI connections for safekeeping!

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