I like LinkedIn. It’s a handy way of keeping in touch with old friends. Often I’ll see one of my contacts add another contact who I know from a long time ago, which leads me to getting back in touch. I like it better than other services I’ve tried.

I downloaded the Outlook Toolbar for LinkedIn which let me search my contacts for people who are already members which worked well. It also shows me when someone I’m corresponding with is already a member. It’s really a good feature.

A couple of things annoy me about the site, though. The first is the answers section. People can ask questions and other members can answer them. However it’s mostly crap. Recruiters looking for people, a bunch of stupid questions, and a crappy interface.

The second thing is that some people treat it as if you get something for having more connections. I often get requests from people I’ve never met. Usually we worked for the same company, or one sharing the same name, but the fact remains I’VE NEVER MET YOU. I thought the connections were supposed to be trusted in some sense. My litmus test for this is, if I called you up, would you know who I was?

Part of me is resistant to using the service. My profile has some of the stuff I do on the side (mostly writing and consulting) and I’m often hesitant to make that publicly known. On the other hand, I am who I am.

Update: I didn’t realize the answers service can be directed only to your trusted contacts. I just received a query from a contact looking for writers, and I thought that was an excellent use. So my comments above should be limited to the public question area.