LinkedIn Updates the Advanced Search Page

Just recently I was working with an Australian client when I discovered massive changes to LinkedIn’s Advanced Search screen. The Advanced Search screen is where you can perform more complex searches of your LinkedIn Network using specific criteria such as location, school, or industry.

To get to the LinkedIn Advanced Search page, all you have to do is click the Advanced link next to the search box in the upper right hand corner of LinkedIn.

The old Advanced Search page looked like this:

Clicking on the Advanced Search link within my Australian client’s account took me to a page that looks like this:

Although this is a totally different interface than before, it contains the same information. The layout has shifted and the search fields are now located on the left hand side bar. It does not appear that any information was lost in this new design. You can still search using keywords, first & last names, title, company, school, location, industry, current & past companies and you can filter the results by the degree of your LinkedIn Network relationship.

LinkedIn Advanced Search Results

The search results appear to have a slightly cleaner look but otherwise the page contains pretty much the same information as before.

There are a few items missing. One of which is the ability to sort the results by relevance, connections, and keywords. The ability to sort does appear when you widen the search beyond just people and include all types of results such as Companies, Jobs, Groups, Updates, etc…

The other item missing is the ability to display the search results in a basic or expanded manner. What this means is you could opt to see the most basic information on the people within the search results or you can expand the search results to show more expanded information like current and past companies. Perhaps these two items just haven’t yet made it into the new interface or LinkedIn decided to get rid of this ability.

Before and After Images of LinkedIn’s Search Results Page

Ultimately the LinkedIn’s new Advanced Search screen isn’t that much different.

When will you see the new LinkedIn Advanced Search?

Yesterday, May 1, 2013 is when I saw it for the first time. As I said previously, it appeared on an Australian client’s account. Perhaps this is something being rolled out only to the Australian market? My guess is that this is a new change that will be rolled out to everyone over the next few months.

LinkedIn is rather infamous for their long, drawn out roll outs. In fact, I am still seeing many clients who don’t have the new rich media functionality which enables you to embed videos, images, and documents into your LinkedIn profile.

When the new Advanced Search hits your account, don’t panic! As you can see, almost all the information is still there— it’s just been moved to the left hand side bar.

What do you think of this new LinkedIn Advanced Search? Do you have it? Are you finding it easier to use? Let me know in the comments of this post… just scroll down!