LinkedIn 3rd level contacts are cut by 50%

Esteban,

Have all users seen a decrease in the number of 3rd level connections.

The 3rd level connections number has been an indication of the and a measure of all the long hours I have invested in building my LinkedIn network. Are you saying that with the new search capability, the number of connections in a users 1st level contact is now meaningless?

Sean

Hi everyone,

Sean: No, most users have not seen a decrease in the reported number of 3rd degree connections. Since we switched the algorithm for this estimate, most users are seeing approximately the same values. However, we have several reported cases now of people seeing drastic drops (like you have). We are investigating the issue, and looking for ways to improve the function that computes this number.

It's important to remember that this number actually has nothing to do with your ability to access people in your third degree network. If they are 3 degrees away from you, you will see the 3rd degree badge on them, and you'll be able to see their profiles and send introduction requests, as always.

As Esteban points out, historically, the third degree was important because it represented who you could actually see in LinkedIn search. With the new search engine, you are able to search all of LinkedIn, as we now use your relationship as part of the relevance score for sorting instead of a filter for results.

Hope this helps.
Adam

Hi Adam,

Thank you for your reply. I am pleased that LinkedIn do think that there is an issue which was not the impression I got from my previous interactions with customer service. When do you expect an update on this issue?

With regards to network size, are you saying that the 1st level contact are no longer relevant when it comes to searching LinkedIn?

Will the same search results come back regardles of whether a user has 10 1st level contacts or 1,000 1st level contacts?

Regards, Sean

We do realize there is an issue, but please recognize it affects a very small number of users, and it does not affect anything but the number reported. It has absolutely zero impact on any functionality on the site.

I'm not sure I understand your question. The number reported is the number of third degree questions, and yet your question is about the number of first degree connections?

In the new search, your results are sorted by "relevance". Relevance is a function that uses your actual connections (first degree, second, etc) to rank the results. So your network matters very much in terms of the order of the results you see.

Hope this helps.
Adam

Thank you for confirming that the issue will not impact the results of any search, but I will be please to see the issue resolved as having your 3rd level connections cut by 50% is disheartening.

I asked about 1st level connections in response to Esteban's earlier answer "I also want to remind you that with the new search, your third degree network no longer limits who will be included in your search results. Your search now goes across all 32+ million members at the same time. Therefore, network size is no longer really a useful measure of capability on LinkedIn." and I was concerned that there would no longer be an incentive for users to continue building their networks.

Thank you for your help.

Regards, Sean

I have had the same issue....i have over 3500 direct connection with approx 16 million + total connections........over the weekend this has dropped to 9 million total connections.

I am adding approximatley 50 direct connections on a good day and yet my total number of connections keeps dropping even though my direct (1st degree) and 2nd degree contacts are rising.

I have to agree with Sean by stating that it is very disheartening considering the time and effort that is put into managing my linkedIn account which has been a very powerful tool in my day to day work

Dez,

Something seems very wrong with LinkedIn's 3rd level connections calculation. I have add more connections today and yesterday and my 3rd level connections are falling.

Dez,

In the last 10 minutes my 3rd line connections have shot up to +20m. Iam not sure if this is as a result of a fix by LinkedIn. Have your connections returned to their correct levels?

Unfortunately for me it has not........my 3rd level connection are still dropping the more people i add......i now have 3600+ 1st level and am on the verge off dropping to under 9 million 3rd level.

Hopefully they will fix mine too...........VERY ANNOYING

Hi everyone,

We're still working on a fix for this issue - as mentioned above, it seems to affect very few people, but I know it is frustrating if you happen to watch the number carefully.

Please remember, there is no actual change to the number of third degree connections that you have. The number is purely used for display purposes.

Also, please remember that the new search engine no longer uses your third degree to limit the scope of your search. So regardless of your network size, you are always searching all of LinkedIn.

Adam

Well im losing alot of connctions....now below the 9 million mark in total :(

posting my stats here so that you can see how many i lose....

Your Connections
Your trusted friends and colleagues 3,693
Two degrees away
Friends of friends; each connected to one of your connections 1,024,400+
Three degrees away
Reach these users through a friend and one of their friends 7,962,000+
Total users you can contact through an Introduction 8,990,100+

This has become a joke.....added 100 new direct connections today which has resulted in losing over 100,000 connections in total.........effectively for every contact i add i lose 1000 connections

Your Connections
Your trusted friends and colleagues 3,797
Two degrees away
Friends of friends; each connected to one of your connections 1,037,900+
Three degrees away
Reach these users through a friend and one of their friends 7,846,300+
Total users you can contact through an Introduction 8,888,000+

Hi Adam,

This issue seems not to have been resolved. My 3rd level connections have just dropped by over 6,000,000 whist my 1st level connections are on the increase. Whatever the fix was 27 days ago, its no longer working.

Is anyone else having the same issue??

Sean

The fix has not been rolled out yet. The algorithm for approximating the number of third degree connections will be adjusted this week.

Adam

Hi Adam,

I look forward to the update.

Sean

Everyone,

The fix for the estimation algorithm went out last night. Please let me know if this helps with your experience.

For most people with extremely large networks, they should see an estimate that is much closer to accurate. We did find a very small edge case where some people were actually seeing a number larger than reality.

Hope this helps.
Adam

Adam,

I have seen no improvement in my 3rd level number, I am still 6,000,000+ connections down as of two days ago.

Sean,

Feel free to contact me directly with your LinkedIn account so I can better diagnose the issue you are reporting.

Esteban

I am not seeing any change either. Early this week my total connections had crossed the 15M mark and today they are at 10.6M (?)

About a month ago I had 1,400 first level connections with 16.5million connections in my network. Today I have 1,492 connections with 12,034,100+ connections in my network. I recall a week or so ago my network connections were as low as about 10.9 million. I generally add about 20 first tier connections a week.

I wondered what had been happening, googled to find out and found this site.

I am a serious networker/ use LI daily. I had 8000 1st degree & 20.6 Mill thru intros, 3rd degree close to 19 mill. My current stats —

Your trusted friends and colleagues 8,261
Two degrees away: 1,526,000+
Three degrees away: 14,462,400+
Total users you can contact through an Intro 15,996,800+

Are you saying that I now can no longer be introduced to 4.7 million people, or it was an eroneous number? How can LinkedIn have had such an incorrect methodology of estimating their connections that translates into the millions? You state that it has only affected a few when we see so many discussing frustration- here, on Li, Twitter, etc. I had a higher reach 1000 direct connections ago at 3rd degree 18,249,200 & intros to 19,576,900.

What degree does the "small edge" represent of the 32 mill users? Please define "extremly large networks". Is that anyone over 100 1st degree? I see people with 1000 to 30,000 stating issues.A suggeston to prevent mass confusion might be better communication between Li & users prior to rolling out changes- such as LI blog.

Thank you for your candor on Get Satisfaction.

Hi Vicki,

I can understand your frustration. To repeat some of the answers above, yes, the issue is not whether or not you can be introduced to your millions of 3rd degree connections - it's purely the estimate of the number that we display.

We changed this algorithm in November, and while it is very accurate for most users, we have found some edge cases where the estimate was very inaccurate. (some of those cases have been outlined here).

The issue is not the number of first degree connections or anything that simple. Graph theory is fairly complicated, but issues include how densely connected your connections are versus the average connection. If you have a very large number of very highly connected connections, the algorithm can sometime over-estimate, and sometime under-estimate the number.

As a result, when I say it affects a very small number, I mean a very small fraction of a fraction of a percent of people.

We rolled out a fix on Tuesday that provides a much more accurate readout for people in this situation. However, we are still getting a small handful of reports of continued issues.

We've investigated a few of these. In some cases, it looks like the problem may have actually been that our estimate was too high previously, and the current number on the site is more accurate. However, we won't know for sure until we investigate more examples specifically.

Hope this helps explain further.
Adam

Thanks for replying to my questions Adam,

I am still confused, as you are stating that you changed the algorithm in November. My stats for December 11th were:

Your trusted friends and colleagues 7,098
Two degrees away: 1,320,600+
Three degrees away: 18,249,200+
Total users you can contact through an Intro 19,576,900+

I actually say the number I could supposedly be reached via intros climb to over 20.6 million thru January. So in fact my drop of 3,786,800 mill in 3rd degree occurred after your changes in algorithm and did not change after your patch on Tuesday. I did hear another colleague whose 3rd degree dropped to 9 mill and then regained to 15 mill this week.

This leaves me frustrated and questioning as to why is my network drastically dropping now? Am I one of the unlucky "edge cases"? I have worked 7 days a week for months to build a very solid network. I was so pleased with LI that I not was a paid member- I recently increased to a higher membership with more tools. I agree with the others that it is disheartening to see the numbers drop.

I have sought out most of the super-connectors, have connected with them over the past year and by doing so have gained wisdom and expertise in utilizing LI to it's fullest capabilities. I assume it makes my network more dense than the average network, and from your comments that makes me a prime target for the overestimation theory?

It still seems that a drop of 4.7 million seems to steep a number to have been overestimated? It also is confusing as to why it dropped after your November change.

Thank you for your time and consideration!

Adam, I find that I am in agreement with Vicki.

I can go along with the overestimation concept to some degree, but the massive fall in 3rd level contacts that I have experienced 5 million+, just does not seem right. My own network is made up of a broad spectrum of contacts with large and small networks.

Sean

Adam,

I have done as asked- I just sent you an inmail via LinkedIn. I greatly appreciate your interest and offer to look into my profile situation. As a LinkedIn client, sales management professional and entrepreneurial business owner- I recognize excellent customer service when I see it.

My background in sales management is partnered with a keen interest in analytics. I have been avidly watching all degrees and introdution reach of my profile network statistics as I have been building it. It has grown proportionately the entire growth period. It has not grown exponentially or abnormally in Dec or Jan to warrant a recent issue with calculations as you may be suggesting. To have dropped in such great numbers (greater than 15% and close to 5 million) does not make mathamatical or logical sense.

Thank you again for your time and consideration.

Cheers!
Vicki

Hi everyone,

We have now conducted a broad test of the recently revamped 3rd degree estimation algorithm, including some of the people that participated in this discussion. Thank you to those of you who provided us with your specific profiles and accounts to check.

There is good news and bad news.

The good news is that the test results show that the new algorithm is extremely accurate. The estimates were correct with a small error margin of 1% or less for all members included in the study.

This means that you should have a very high degree of confidence that the numbers you are now seeing live on the site, as of the fix last Tuesday, are fairly accurate numbers.

The bad news is that this research also demonstrated that we actually had errors previously in both directions - not only did a small fraction of users see numbers that were too low, but there were also a small fraction that saw numbers that were too high.

As mentioned in previous posts, the actual mathematics behind providing real-time estimation of 3rd degree relationship volume on a graph the size of LinkedIn is non-trivial.

We apologize for any confusion or problems that these issues may have caused.

Esteban

Gents-
I have purposefully not accepted any invitations (other than one) sense this conversation started- curious to see the outcome

Dec 11th:
Your trusted friends and colleagues 7,098
Two degrees away: 1,320,600+
Three degrees away: 18,249,200+
Total users you can contact through an Intro 19,576,900+

Two days ago:
Your trusted friends and colleagues 8,261
Two degrees away: 1,526,000+
Three degrees away: 14,462,400+
Total users you can contact through an Intro 15,996,800+

Today:
Your trusted friends and colleagues 8,262
Two degrees away 1,531,300+
Three degrees away 14,470,000+
Total users you can contact through an Intro 16,009,500+

I can only imagine what a mind boggling chore it must be keeping track of LinkedIn's growth- with 32+ mill users on a 24/7 global time clock. This has been an eye opening adventure. Thank you for a birds-eye-view inside LinkedIn. Although admittedly still bummed an epiphany did not reverse my numbers, as some of my colleagues reported- It is somewhat comforting to know that these numbers are now solidly founded. Thank you Adam, Esteban and LinkedIn comrads!

Cheers!
Vicki Bass-DeBinion