LinkedIn Replaces LinkedIn Today with Pulse Integration

Pulse, the customizable news reader that LinkedIn acquired in April for $90 million, just got a major promotion, as it announced on Wednesday that its popular news curation feature, LinkedIn Today, has been replaced on both desktop and mobile by Pulse, which now provides the backend technology for all content surfacing on the platform.

The transition comes alongside an update to the Pulse mobile app, which will more tightly integrate the news reader with LinkedIn.

The app features some major changes highlighted by the company a few weeks ago, including the ability for users to log in using their LinkedIn IDs.

This allows Pulse to return more relevant content, taking into account a user’s professional interests and the people they follow on LinkedIn.

Beginning Wednesday, any channels a user follows on LinkedIn will sync with the Pulse app using a LinkedIn login.

Pulse also allows users to comment on and Like articles from the mobile app, something not previously available.

If the user is logged in with his LinkedIn ID, these interactions will then appear on his profile page, similar to an update.

In many ways, the content that appeared previously under “LinkedIn Today” will remain the same, just with a new section header.

The technology that surfaces this content is not far removed from where it was before, according to a spokesperson. It simply includes more signals within the algorithm, incorporating a user’s Pulse habits, too.

Wednesday’s move brings Pulse into the picture in a big way by rebranding one of the site’s most popular features with the Pulse name.

When users sign into LinkedIn, they will first see Pulse’s news recommendations. Users who like what they read on LinkedIn now know where they can access that content at all times.

LinkedIn is making a big push toward more personalized content for users. By integrating Pulse and LinkedIn.com, the site is leveraging the wealth of data from both platforms to return articles and news that it hopes users will care about. After all, this is what keeps readers returning.

Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn CEO, said last month that mobile will play a major part in LinkedIn’s future. Part of setting up that future is integrating the company’s mobile news reader with the rest of its services. This is what LinkedIn accomplished Wednesday.

sThe new Pulse app is available now for both iOS and Android.
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