LinkedIn Adds New Ways to Browse Connections

LinkedIn will soon roll out a nifty new contact browsing interface that should make things a bit easier for workplace social butterflies who have a lot of people to keep track of.

The update adds a panel that you can use to browse contacts by their companies, industries or locations. You can also find folks based on various tags that you define (for example, “recruiters” or “classmates”) and recent activity. The interface has a search field where you can narrow things down by entering names or other information that might appear in a contact’s profile.

Browse down to a specific person and a mini profile will appear in the far right panel, where you’ll find contact information, a photo, current position and number of connections. You can also add or remove tags for that contact while viewing the mini profile.

LinkedIn just recently launched major redesigns for both its website and its iPhone app. Combine those changes, this new panel, and the faceted search feature and you’ve got some powerful tools for finding what and who you need among your professional contacts.

We’d love to see these sorts of features in more sites, especially Facebook, which has some big flaws in both its search interface and results. This is one area where Facebook could learn a lot from LinkedIn.

Here’s a pic of the new search panel interface.
http://mashable.com/2010/01/26/linkedin-connections