LinkedIn vs. Facebook (NYT Bits Blog)

Fun post from Saul Hansell (NYT) about facebook and LinkedIn as social networking sites for adults. I agree with Hansell about facebook's ease of use, but LinkedIn seems to be gaining a lot of traction with professionals.

June 27, 2007, 7:13 pm

DealBook: Is LinkedIn Getting Ready for an I.P.O.?

By Saul Hansell

....snip...

I have had many people request I connect with them on LinkedIn, but I have never found the service to be of much use. People I know who are more deal doers seem to swear by it. Facebook, which has become the rage in Silicon Valley over the last two months, seems both easier to use, more useful, and — most importantly — more interesting to look at. ...snip...

That said, Facebook needs to rewrite its interface for grownups. It gives you various options to describe how you met someone: such as “went to school together,” “from an organization or team,” and “from a summer/study abroad program.” It doesn’t have the sorts of ways that adults meet: “crashed our strollers into each other at the playground,” “trying to get a drink at a trade show,” or “in the waiting room of Divorce Court.”

But I’ll bet it will be easier for Facebook to get serious than for LinkedIn to get interesting.