Linkedin Undergoing Major Changes in Preparation of IPO

In case you hadn’t noticed, we thought we might give you a heads up on a few of the major changes going on at Linkedin, the venerable professional social networking site launched over eight years ago. The company has finally made it to the pre-IPO or mezzanine phase of investment and hopes to go public very soon. That said, the company is working feverishly on polishing up its Linkedin.com site and the changes are substantial.

First off, the company has now prohibited group managers or “owners” from access to the private e-mail addresses of Linkedin members. No doubt, many of you will laud this decision, but it has caused many a group manager great consternation. Group managers must now use Linkedin’s Inmail internal messaging system or several other communication methods including “send message” or broadcast over the Manager’s Announcement feature, which is probably a better idea anyway due to privacy concerns of members.

In addition, changes to the Jobs section or tab in groups may give recruiters pause now, since their posts are now directed to the “Job Discussions” section under the Jobs tab. Only paid recruiter messages now appear directly under the Jobs tab. This is obviously one of Linkedin’s profit centers on Linkedin and they have every right to make these changes. The only question is will recruiters try “slumming” it in the Job Discussions area, which is slightly buried or take the pay as you go route.

Other significant changes for Linkedin on the horizon are topical categories for groups and the ability to filter RSS feeds from the main discussion area or at least that’s what we heard on the grapevine. Will Linkedin be a completely different animal or service once it goes public? That remains to be seen, as the company will forced to monetize more on its site in order to help turn its social networks into a true money making machine, lest they answer to Wall Street.