Hobnob: The Facebook Application that LinkedIn Doesn’t Want You to See - Rmail
Posted by elveston priory at 8:34 pm
Hobnob is a new application that offers professional networking tools for Facebook users. The service allows you to reach out to your Facebook network with a request and then have your friends get back to you with recommended contacts.
The application keeps things fairly open-ended, letting you fill in the blank after "I Want to Hobnob with: …" This means you can enter either the name of the specific person you are looking to connect with, or just enter a generic description such as "talented computer programmer." You can then choose the friends from your network that you would like to send the request to.
Additionally, Hobnob features a "Global Connection Requests" area where you can see requests that have been broadcast to the public. This is a similar idea to LinkedIn Answers, where by helping out a stranger with their request you can gain a new professional contact. Of course, not all of the requests are strictly professional – some users appear to be using the service so far in hopes of being introduced to celebrities or for dating purposes.
Hobnob does a good job of essentially taking one of the major selling points of LinkedIn and bringing it to Facebook, where professionals are starting to migrate in droves. Additionally, versus LinkedIn where you need to pay for more than a few introductions or "InMail" messages, Hobnob is completely free.
LinkedIn is clearly feeling some pressure from Facebook and applications like HobNob will only add to it. The company is working on its own developer platform, but it is reportedly going to take a much more closed approach than that of Facebook.
Hobnob is being launched by a company called Area 444, who also operates user-generated audio joke site Comic Wonder.
User comment: By: JpWhat is the point of this when Facebook is going to build their own functionality for professional networking?
User comment: By: Adam OstrowI think it's definitely something Facebook sees itself doing in the future. The privacy features (current - like "limited profiles", and upcoming - like different friend groups) provide an environment where you can manage your personal and professional relationships separately.
User comment: By: JohnWKHas any mashable readers ever made a business contact that lead to something significant through facebook? I'm not sure if I would use Facebook for business related purposes but I'm not dismissing the idea completely.
User comment: By: laurentkI guess everybody thought about this for months now, facebook has the network, the capacities, and the potential. And it's less "cold" than facebook, as it's positionned on a personal and not professional basis. However, the big stop is always the "install the app before using it" ... which limits the effect i guess
Visit here to subscribe to these commentsUser comment: By: Dave ForbesThere's another app which i've used a fair bit to find people who have skills/knowledge I need called KnowledgeBook - definitely worth checking out, more people should know about this too frankly.
R|mail.