LinkedIn today announced it’ll soon be closing a couple of its less integral services, citing the need to concentrate “on fewer things” to ensure that its business and enterprise-focused social network is successful. The most notable closure is Intro, a service that brings information about the millions of LinkedIn users inside the default iOS Mail app.
Based on Rapportive’s technology – a startup LinkedIn acquired for $15 million in February 2012 – Intro was designed to give you further information about people who are contacting you via email. Whether that’s a business proposition or a quick invite to meet up for a beer, with Intro enabled you can glimpse at their LinkedIn profile and familiarise yourself with their occupation, place of employment and prior experience.
LinkedIn launched Intro in October last year, but said today that it would be closing the service on March 7. Members can continue to use Rapportive to review LinkedIn profiles inside Gmail on the desktop, however.
LinkedIn was at one point criticized for Intro’s security, with one researcher describing it as “a target for someone that wants to get to your e-mail.” The company defended then defended the service and its implementation in a blog post. “We made sure we built the most secure implementation we believed possible,” the company said. “We explored numerous threat models and constantly challenged each other to consider possible threat scenarios.”
LinkedIn will also shutter Slidecast, a feature within Slideshare that allowed you to attach an audio file to a presentation or slideshow. The service will close on April 30, although it’ll still be possible to view Slidecasts without their audio counterparts after this date. “The SlideShare team will continue to focus on building new products and improving our existing experiences to make our products even better for our members,” Deep Nishar, SVP for products and user experience at LinkedIn said in a blog post.
Yesterday, LinkedIn announced a $120 million acquisition for the job matching service Bright. It was the company’s most expensive acquisition to date, eclipsing its deals for Slideshare and Pulse.
Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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