





LinkedIn has announced the beta launch of LinkedIn Signal, a new product that essentially combines LinkedIn and Twitter updates into a single newsfeed. We have invites for the first 250 readers that are able to snatch them up.

LinkedIn Signal is a content consumption application with more filters than we could possibly ever need. Signal pulls in both Twitter and LinkedIn updates from LinkedIn connections and presents them in a style similar to the Facebook News Feed.

The goal here is to help professionals find the signal in the noise, thus the name. To that end, Signal has a slew of filters to help users find the news and content they're craving. There are eight filters, based on your network, industry, company affiliation, location, university, time published and hashtag. Picking any of these options on the left-hand column will clean up the newsfeed considerably. So yes, an aspiring screenwriter could be as specific as "only updates from the entertainment industry posted in the last week in the Los Angeles area from people that work at major movie studios."

But wait, you can make Signal even more specific than that. There is also the option for following only specific keywords, people or topics based on your searches. Once you follow a specific topic or search query, it is saved in a box on the left-hand navigation.

At the same time, the company is also tackling the issue of finding what's hot on the web with its "Trending Links" section. This section in the right-hand column displays the most shared links in your Signal stream. The results change dynamically based on the search query or the filters you are using. You can even drill down into shared links with the "Who shared this link?" feature. Not only can you find the people who are sharing specific links, but you can also filter them by industry, company or region.







LinkedIn's Big Bet on Content Consumption

The fact that LinkedIn built such a detailed product almost completely outside of the LinkedIn's social structure surprised us. It would be one thing if it were filtering just LinkedIn updates, but we found that Signal was utterly dominated by Twitter activity during our tests.

That shouldn't be a surprise though; just think about how often you update your Twitter compared to your LinkedIn. The result is that Signal is essentially a Twitter consumption app. It's a very sophisticated, well-designed Twitter app, but a Twitter app nonetheless.







Signal makes a good deal of sense for LinkedIn. Thought it is indeed the world's most prominent social network for business, users rarely come back unless they're looking for a job or want to connect with someone they met at a business meeting. There is little incentive to return every day.

Nearly everything the company has launched in the last few months has been focused on increasing user engagement, especially in the realm of content consumption. Updated company profiles, the acquisition of mSpoke, the revamp of Groups and new link-sharing options have all been part of a trend to keep users more engaged on the site through content consumption.

The question now is whether people will find Signal useful enough to use every day or week, or if it'll just become another LinkedIn tool that nobody uses until they're looking for a job.

Invites

LinkedIn Signal is currently in an invite-only beta, but the first 250 readers to visit this link will automatically have access to it.