by Eric Puravs

Created on: November 09, 2010   Last Updated: November 10, 2010

Linkedin Signal is a new search tool offered by Linkedin. With it, you can track status updates, tweets, and links Linkedin members have posted. You can also use it to see how many posts about certain industries or companies Linkedin members have posted on Twitter. It looks much like the results a traditional Linkedin search gives you. On the left, there is a series of check boxes so you can filter the results in place of the text boxes in the

traditional Linkedin search tool. It posts the tweets (nearly everything in my results was posted via Twitter) and Linkedin status updates in the center of the screen, in place of the search results. On the right side of the screen, trending links are displayed where ads are in the traditional search tool. Linkedin Signal manages to display these trending links neatly with a small picture and the number of times they have been shared by people in your network. Click on “Who's shared this link?” to see which Linkedin members shared the link. You can filter the posters by industry, company, and region, but not scroll down through the list.

The results from from the filter tool are neater and more flexible than the information shown on the Linkedin home page, but the information shown is different. To review, the traditional Linkedin home page shows you the network activity of your first degree connections. You also can see updates of activity in your groups at the bottom of your home page. Along the right edge of the standard home page, there are some other bits of information. At the top, there are 3 randomly selected people you may know, Followed by a link to a semi-anonymous list of people who have viewed your profile and a graph of when they viewed it, statistics on how many new members your network has, a list of 3 potential jobs, and an Amazon reading list where you can share what you are reading and see what other people have posted.

Linkedin Signal lets you filter by degree of connection to find updates from your connections or everyone in Linkedin. By default, it only shows posts from you and your first degree connections. You can limit it to search for your own posts, or include your second degree connections as well. But if you include 3rd degree connections, you also have to include everyone. This last selection is grayed out, so I'm not sure about is future. There are numbers by each check box to show how many posts there are, these represent posts, not people. My test results included 12 posts at first, all from the same person. You can also select posts from a specific industry. You can include everyone, and choose the industry you are interested in to fish for information. The five companies from the industry that are generating the most posts will be displayed as check boxes in the company section. There are also text boxes where you can enter a name to filter by. You can select a time range, from the last minute to the last two weeks. The region and school sections are also filled in by the top 5 results, the top schools may each lead to results from one prolific poster. The last thing you can filter by is Twitter hash tags. But it is #notalwayseasy2understand the ones in the list, and there is no box to enter your own. You can also search for specific names or words by typing them in the search box at the top of the screen. Save your search term by clicking the green + or “Follow” at the top of the results. If the search has several terms, you can give it a short name. The saved searches will be listed in a “Following” box above the filters. Linkedin Signal is in beta testing. Go ahead and try it, there is also a feedback link in the upper right corner of the screen.

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