I think that blog post was a bit hasty. Sure, I can see how LinkedIn might have poor signal-to-noise for a well-connected venture capitalist type whose job cons

I think that blog post was a bit hasty. Sure, I can see how LinkedIn might have poor signal-to-noise for a well-connected venture capitalist type whose job consists largely of making connections. It doesn't work for HIM, and that's OK. However, for many people it is an excellent way to keep in touch with colleagues. It lowers the difficulty threshold for maintaining vital professional contacts. For example, when I change jobs now, I don't have to think about manually digging up all my former colleagues' contact info and worry about pestering them with an awkward email about what I am doing. I just update my status, and voila, the news gets out and I hear from folks if there is anything interesting to them to say. LinkedIn is an awesome tool for job hunting and a nice place to log your resume bullet points. That said, it really sucks at the open-ended social functions. Discussion groups are filled with incredibly stilted Q/A where everyone is fronting their best "professional" face. It is enough to give me a headache just reading it.