A little over three months ago I wrote the post How To Set Up And Use LinkedIn Intro here on the Sales Pro Blog.
I even created a detailed how-to-guide for getting it set up on your iPhone which I posted on SlideShare.
In the very first sentence of the post I claim that LinkedIn Intro is “in my opinion one of their most innovative apps yet.“
I do still believe this so was very disappointed when I received the below email explaining that LinkedIn Intro is being retired as of March 7th, 2014.
I’m not ashamed to say I was surprised when I received that email. Although Intro is one of three services LinkedIn plans to eliminate, including SlideCast and support for older iOS versions, I felt that Linked Intro would be a long standing product of LinkedIn.
It seems I was wrong.
If you didn’t notice the instructions in the picture above you can go here for instructions to uninstall LinkedIn Intro or read the instructions at the end of this post. It took me all of a minute to do it so don’t feel there is any major steps to remove it or reclaim your email service.
Why Retire LinkedIn Intro?
There are two major reasons floating around the internet as to why LinkedIn is shutting down Intro.
First of all is the controversy which has surrounded it since release, the second is a refocus of the companies priorities.
LinkedIn Intro Controversy
From the very beginning Intro was seen as an insult to web user privacy. The most vocal of opponents against Intro was security firm Bishop Fox who authored not one, but two posts around LinkedIn Intro.
The reason for this concern is that LinkedIn Intro essentially hijacks your email message from the email provider to your inbox. It injects the LinkedIn information into the message to be displayed within your native mail client as a drop down.
To be honest I completely understand the concern raised by many opponents however I feel that it has always been in LinkedIn’s best interest to protect it’s users information. Quite literally there are millions if not billions of dollars at stake if any breach through Intro were to have happened.
And as far as I know no such breach has occurred within LinkedIn Intro. However recent, completely unrelated, incidents of personal information security breaches have been the news of late….you know you are.
Perhaps LinkedIn took a second look at it’s security protocols and decided better safe than sorry. Especially with a product that is in the lime light and ripe for the picking.
Company Refocus
In the email received announcing the change, focusing on the “most relevant offerings” is cited as the main reason for retiring Intro. In better context:
“We strive to deliver product experiences that delight our members and add value to their professional lives. This sometimes means shutting down certain products or features to focus on the most relevant offerings for our members.”
I can completely understand this shift for LinkedIn especially considering other companies have recently done the same.
One thing I did find in my research of this subject is that according to LinkedIn’s Q4 2013 Earnings Report (Click here and scroll to page 13) although membership was up, pageviews and unique visitors were down for the quarter.
I’m no tech writer or LinkedIn conspiracy theorist but is it possible that this decrease in pageviews and visitors could have been a result of LinkedIn Intro?
With LinkedIn Intro I would no longer have to go to LinkedIn.com to view a personals professional information. It would all be available to me within my mail client. The problem for LinkedIn is that there are no ads available through Intro on my mobile device.
To me it seems that LinkedIn created a product that competes with the companies main focus instead of complimenting it.
What are your thoughts?
Any ideas as to why quick change. Maybe they have an even better product on the line. A LinkedIn Phone maybe. InPhone.
Who knows what the future will bring.
How To Uninstall LinkedIn Intro
Although the directions are straight forward in the email above, if you need additional help I’ve detailed the uninstall of LinkedIn Intro.
In order to uninstall simply go to your iPhone Settings -> General -> Profiles -> Select any profiles that begin with “Intro” -> Remove -> Remove.
You’ll then need to restore the “old” account to continue receiving emails. Again, iPhone Settings -> Mail Contacts, Calendars -> Select the account to restore -> Switch it back on (toggle will be green).
Do this by March 7th and you have nothing to worry about. Don’t and you will stop receiving your emails.
~ Johnny Bravo
Be sure to connect with Johnny Bravo on LinkedIn at www.linkedIn.com/in/johnnybravo
Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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