10 things I would like to see in the new LinkedIn

L to R: Jeff Weiner, Satya Nadella, Reid Hoffman. Image credit: Microsoft.

Last month, Microsoft bought the world’s largest professional networking site LinkedIn for US$26 billion. There’s been much furor over how Microsoft isn’t going to do any good for LinkedIn. I believe the two can create a game changing product.

The Redmond-based tech giant still controls 90 percent of the market share of operating systems on the world’s PCs. That is where the Microsoft-LinkedIn team can work wonders both for enterprise and retail users.

Despite losing the social networking battle to Facebook, the mobile platform war to Google, and the hardware game to Apple, Microsoft has a chance of winning the enterprise networking and collaboration piece through its buyout of LinkedIn.

Here are ways I think LinkedIn can be transformed by Microsoft to make it more collaborative, especially for business users:

1.The Skype edge

With Microsoft now owning both Skype and LinkedIn, there can be a transformation in video-based remote collaboration. One should be able to login into Skype via LinkedIn and collaborate via video calling with colleagues.

2. Merging Microsoft and LinkedIn IDs

Why can’t I log-in to Windows using my LinkedIn ID? It could be easy as pressing a Linkedin button when Windows loads. Who knows?

3. Remember meetings

A simple tool that Microsoft can insert into LinkedIn is a calendar and meeting reminder. It can be easy to set up a meeting within the Linkedin app and send out a calendar invite. It can give Google Calendar some tough competition.

4. Note taking

Trying to compare candidates and noting their skills or writing a profile of a candidate from his LinkedIn bio? Why open another application? While LinkedIn allows you to write notes about a person, why not expand it into a full-fledged notepad?

Photo credit: Pixabay.

5. LinkedIn as your default email client

Why do we need another email client if a tab in LinkedIn can show us an inbox? Microsoft can give professional and personal emails a new dimension. With a simple import, I could see all my Google contacts and email them from a LinkedIn app.

6. Phone a friend

Even if Linkedin decides to keep Skype separate, Microsoft won’t do any harm by introducing a voice call button in Linkedin. It would help business people collaborate better through multi-party conferencing which is currently possible through Lync.

7. Docu-drama

The most important feature which LinkedIn can introduce with Microsoft’s help is the ability to create a document and collaborate on it. With SlideShare already under the Linkedin banner, I would love to see presentations being created on the cloud directly within LinkedIn – all collaboratively.

8. Who needs Slack or Flowdock?

9. LinkedIn integration with OneDrive

10. Make recruiting easier