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LinkedIn (Temporarily) Backs Down After Uproar At Contact Export Removal
Mark Wilson writes: LinkedIn caused a storm a couple of days ago when it removed the option to instantly download contacts. Many users of the professional social network were more than a little irked to discover that while contact exporting was still available, a wait of up to three days had been put in place. Unsurprisingly, users revolted, having been particularly upset by the fact the change was implemented with no warning or announcement. But the company has managed to turn things around by quickly backtracking on its decision after listening to a stream of complaints on Twitter.
It's surprising because Google came to the opposite conclusion. A lock-in keeps current users, but it also slows down the arrival of new users, so it's a short-term vs long-term tradeoff.
While they advertised their API removal, it was a giant mess as well. They removed almost all the functionality and rather than just remove the API functions from the admin console, they left them still there and made developers go manually switch off the ones they weren't allowed to use themselves. If anything was left on, your calls just wouldn't work.
removal of the regular download option had been "part of our ongoing efforts to combat the inappropriate export of member data by third parties." As a result of the vocal outpouring of disapproval, instant CSV exporting is back...
I have to wonder who outpoured disapproval? It doesn't seem like something most users would care about.
On the other hand, headhunters who use LinkedIn as a site for harvesting resumes would be angry. But isn't that the whole point of LinkedIn? To give recruiters your contact info so they can spam you?
It wouldn't surprise me if this was just a publicity stunt.