Exploring Private Profiles on LinkedIn

[Irina Shamaeva]

When you use people search on LinkedIn, sometimes you see the “Out of your network” note (as seen on the left here) and at other times you see that the profile is Private. In both cases LinkedIn suggests that you should upgrade your account to see more...

Read - and check out an example of a private profile - here:

Exploring Private Profiles on LinkedIn

[Irina Shamaeva]

Dear Annette,

Thanks for your response. Actually this type of view has nothing to do with people wanting to hide their info. (If you look at the screenshot in my post, you will if fact see my profile http://www.linkedin.com/in/irinashamaeva - and it is "public".)
It's a way for LinkedIn to ask for more money for sure. :)

[Mike Himley]

Irina:
I recently wrote a post about searching private profiles on linkedin. Rather than retyping it, I'll direct you to it. http://eagleintelligence.com/2010/03/the-limits-of-social-network-p...

I do think the different views have something to do with a user setting a privacy option on their profile.

[Irina Shamaeva]

Mike,

Thanks, I have read your post. It's very interesting but some things are incorrect. In Google, the operator site: needs to be in the lower case. There's no operator location: on Google.

"Private" LinkedIn profiles are those that do not show up on Google at the request of their owners. However if you search on LinkedIn and see someone's profiles as "private" (instead of the name) - this has nothing to do with that. In the majority of cases, these people are on Google, along with their names and many details.

I will be giving a webinar on LinkedIn profiles on June 8th.
LinkedIn Profiles: an In-Depth Look – Webinar on June 8th

Thanks,
Irina

[Mike Himley]

Irina: Thanks for the note. I'll check on the site operator. There actually is a location operator but I'm not sure if it's functional across all sources. This reference says it's functional against Google news.

location:

If you include location: in your query on Google News, only articles from the location you specify will be returned. For example, [ queen location:canada ] will show articles that match the term “queen” from sites in Canada. Many other country names work; try them and see. Two-letter US state abbreviations match individual US states, and two-letter Canadian province abbreviations (like NS for Nova Scotia) also work — although some provinces don’t have many newspapers online, so you may not get many results. Some other two-letter abbreviations — such as UK for the United Kingdom — are also available.

Source: http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html#location

Good luck with your webinar.

[Irina Shamaeva]

Mike,

Thanks for your reply. Yes, correct, location: can be used on Google News along with a state or a country - but not a city, like in your post.
It cannot be used in Google web search.