LinkedIn has taken some of the pile of cash it raised in its IPO last year and is in the process of acquiring Rapportive, a Gmail overlay that displays multiple levels of contact info for anyone you email with your Gmail account. I was naturally curious, so I thought I'd try it out.
First of all, you can download the app at Rapportive's website for free. Keep in mind that it only works with Gmail, so you must have a Gmail account (or open one). Second, this app is about an 8.5 on a scale of 1-10 for privacy intrusion, so you need to be prepared for that. It's going to want access to your LinkedIn account, your Facebook account, your Twitter handle, and your Google+ account.
On the plus side, the app displays all that information for anyone you email or receive email from in your Gmail account. So if you email a BSD alumni at Goldman Sachs and he responds, you're going to have all his LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ info instantly. In addition to that contact info, Rapportive is also going to provide you a listing of all your previous email interactions with that person.
It's pretty slick, and more than a little creepy. For guys like me, I can see a buddy's Twitter handle when I didn't even realize he was on Twitter, so that's kinda cool. But it's a tool that can easily get out of hand if misused. So take note college kids: just because a guy in finance was good enough to answer one of your emails, it doesn't mean he wants to be friends on Facebook.
I can see why this technology appeals to LinkedIn, and it's probably a decent acquisition for them. As the world becomes more connected through social media, it makes sense to have a leg up on the competition if you're competing directly in the social connection space.
The jury is still out for me on whether or not I keep this app installed. It's nifty, but it's also the kind of thing that lends itself too easily to abuse.
Use it wisely to make appropriate connections, and you might just find that it helps your career prospects. Use it to make inappropriate and socially awkward advances toward people you don't really know and you'll quickly get a reputation for being "that guy".
At any rate, it's another potential arrow in your networking quiver. If you try it out, let me know what you think.
Holy crap. From now on I'll never answer a single email with a gmail adress from a college student. That's just disturbing having seniors/juniors/asians masturbate all over my LinkedIn or FB.
Take note students; I'll never answer if you have a gmail account.
Too late - my school uses the GMail interface but my messages come from the .edu email address. Many other schools are doing the same thing. You're fucked.
Do you prefer WSO pm?
pm sent...
If you're as attractive as you think you are, I guarantee your MD is making you a lowly position in his fantasy and cumming in your mouth.
And by the way looks like you're pretty easy to get on anyways.
Also, putting down your gender as "Male" to make it harder for others to identify you is futile. Who you tryin' to fool bitch?
Somebody get Happy on the horn. Yohoo is back.
Wow. An internet tough guy. You are connecting the dots like cum on a freckled girl.
Do they know you're getting all this information?
Nope.
@Working9-5 You don't even have to answer an email from them. All they need is your email address. When they enter it into the To: field, it pulls up your info. I know, I tried it.
But the other has to have Rapportive too right? Otherwise this is very creepy....
They don't have to have Rapportive.
This is my guess as to how Rapportive works. It analyzes the email address, and sees what social media accounts are open under that address. If it's a work address, chances are that's going to be your LinkedIn account. From there I imagine it analyzes your public LinkedIn info to suss out any social media identities that are yours but might not necessarily be under the same email address.
Again, that's just a guess.
You're right, it does have the potential to be VERY creepy. But it could also be really useful. Jury's still out for me.
Just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly:
If I'm a guy at GS, I have my GS email on my LinkedIn. When some kid enters my email into his account, my LinkedIn pops up. Okay, fine, whatever. He could have found me on LinkedIn using the info he already has.
Now let's say I have a Facebook under a GMail account (not the account that the kid is emailing.) Are you saying my Facebook might pop up as well, even if the account is not associated with my GS email address?
I can't say 100%. However, a couple friends of mine with different info associated with different networks all came up.
no--i just tried it out. it only works with that SPECIFIC email address. it doesn't know anything other than the person's email address, and it finds info based on that.
I just tried it, and.....
it's really not all THAT useful. Maybe the people i've been emailing aren't using work emails for much, but I rarely got much more than an linkedin to which I was already connected to. Interesting concept, but rarely will you get to email people on their personal email which they have connected to everything.
Creepy? Useful?
Pshhht. Two sides of the same coin. Information on other people is and will always be useful, and past a certain threshold, it starts getting creepy, but is useful nonetheless.
@Eddie: Crap. I guess I need to adjust my privacy settings on FB and LinkedIn.
Thats awesome!!! using it now
I'm not sure it's that useful. If you are emailing someone it means you have his name, you can look him up yourself and find him on linkedin pretty easily... And for professional purposes anything regarding fb is way out of line.
The thing is that the email address I use to create a fb/linkedin/twitter account shouldn't be accessible to third parties without me consenting, that's where I have a problem, I find it a huge privacy violation. Many people including myself have fake names on FB to prevent people you don't want to from finding you, this might become useless with this thing. If I create a twitter account pretending to be a male prostitute to have some laughs I don't want someone in HR finding out about it just by having my fucking e-mail....
So true... I'm considering shutting down my facebook account as I use my actual name and it seems more and more of info is being shared... I'm not on twitter either... We all know people will not put things in context when they search you... You make a crude (or clever in some cases) joke online and HR/Work people will hold it against you.
This is actually really scary for anyone who has stuff out there that they may not want employeers to see..I feel like this idea will totally backfire.
I do not have twitter or Facebook because of shit like this. More importantly, more shit like this to come in the near future.
i don't understand all the paranoia behind this. people could search for you the exact same way before, this just makes it way easier. change your twitter/facebook to a different email address and you're all good, right?
This is the definition of short term 'oh this is awesome' and long term 'oh, fuck'.
Hmm for me Rapportive is only as creepy as the person who uses it. Agreed with someone who said earlier that this wasn't THAT new, it only makes searching for people easier. I mean when I know someone's name and workplace the first thing I check is their Linkedin, then their google results to see if they've published something interesting/been on the news/school's website. I rarely (if ever) check out people's Twitter accounts and occasionally find them on facebook mostly to see what they look like. I have always been doing that before Rapportive and it wasn't hard at all. This will only turn creepy when the users decide to go creepy, and for me that is worrying because it's out of your control. But again, it's not like you could not do that before Rapportive either.
One question: will Rapportive give out your phone number though? That would be a bit, erm, annoying!
It gives your Skype info now, so not quite.
I used my gmail email to let people know that I was leaving one of my previous firms... Lots of people have that (a few hundred contacts). I guess I'm screwed / should change and/or leave all of my social websites... go off the grid...
I don't want to sound alarmist, will it show your YouTube & Amazon info as well? ...
Since YouTube is a Google property, I wouldn't be surprised to see this added soon. Amazon is a horse of a different color, though. Bezos has his own plans for your personal data, and he doesn't want to share.
I've heard of people using Bloomberg Messenger as opposed to cold emailing.
Just realized how they are doing the Twitter thing. I knew you could type in someone's email address into Facebook, but I didn' t know Twitter had this option:
You can disable the feature on twitter that lets other people find you by email address. It's in the settings. Not sure if this thing can get around it though.
Damnit, I get enough stalkers from my alma mater as it is. The Asian kids are going to be all over this one as 9-5 said. I try to keep all my social media shit on the DL as it is, but it might be coming up to the point where I'm going to have to strap on the tinfoil hat and go off the grid.
Does rapportive allow for multiple levels of access?
Nice
Whether you install rapporative or not, I would recommend you disassociate your work and primary personal emails from websites you don't want tracked... (i.e. your banker parody twitter account, your pseudonym facebook page, etc...).
so i just figured something out that essentially means nobody is safe.
The application will work if you click on "sent mail" in your gmail folder and will work for email addresses that you sent emails too--SO IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU RESPOND!!! they can still get it to work just by sending you an email and going into sent mail.
THAT, imo, is a little bit over the top.
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