Beyond photos: 3 more LinkedIn improvements I'd like to see

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With Facebook grabbing the social networking limelight, LinkedIn needed to do something.  Starting Friday, users will be able to add photos to their profiles.  It's a small step.  Here are three things which would help me make more use of LinkedIn.

1. A better way to manage my LinkedIn inbox.  It's inundated with questions, most of which I don't intend to answer.  I need tools more like those provided by a real email program.  In fact, why not provide a POP3 interface, so that I can simply read those messages in my actual email inbox?
2. Synch my contacts with my address book. I use Plaxo to manage my contact database.  Plaxo's LinkedIn synch is not a great experience at this point, unlike every other synchronization that they perform.  LinkedIn could either synch directly with my address book, or help Plaxo to fix their broken experience.
3. Tell us more about that API.  We'd like to add FREE Conference Calls (now only available on Facebook) to LinkedIn as soon as it's available. 

Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.

Tagged as: Facebook, LinkedIn, photos, Plaxo