Search Groups on LinkedIn

It was announced a few days ago that beginning today people would be able to search for groups on LinkedIn.  This has been one of the most important features that has been lacking (until today).  Up until now, a person could suggest a group (school alumni, employer groups, etc.) and the people at LinkedIn would approve or disapprove of it.  As a member of several groups, I know they do serve a useful purpose by keeping everyone together.

By implementing search for groups, LinkedIn has exposed that they evidently didn’t search for duplicate groups during the approval process.  What this has done (as I noticed as soon as I did a search) was to allow people to establish multiple groups for the exact same purpose.  I did a search for “Norwich” to see if my school had any alumni groups.  I found three or four (in addition to the one I had previously established).

By not doing any QA on the approval/submission process, LinkedIn has essentially caused a divide among people who want to join a group.  Unless the leaders of these groups get together to consolidate the lists, I believe that the usefulness of LinkedIn has just been diminished.   I can’t see how anyone would want to be a member of three different groups with the same purpose.  As a result, I deleted my group and will spend some time deciding which one to join.

I think LinkedIn now has to work to consolidate some of these groups in order to restore utility and functionality to the whole purpose and goal of having groups in the first place.  If they don’t, the divide created by the unearthing of multiple groups will cause the whole “group concept” to lose its appeal and functionality.

The ball is in your court, LinkedIn.