NetHooks Blog

The last few weeks we have been working on fixing some bugs and design elements. So here is the latest update.

• Profile Image on My Personal page is upgraded to provide editing options. So now, you can cut your head off if you don’t like to show it.
• 2nd Level Connections table is a lot more organized and neat. Also we fixed the bug that was repeating your connections.
• When you roll your mouse over your 2nd Level Connection, you get to see how you got your connection. In other words, you get to see your connection history or source of your connection.

Recently Amit Chowdhry from Pulse2.o wrote on article on NetHooks. In the article, it was interesting how Amit used the term “Yuppies” - Young Urban Professionals to describe (some of) our user base.  

You can check out the article here -  NetHooks Taking on LinkedIn Head-On 

Few of NetHooks users mentioned to us that they have nominated NetHooks for Crunchies Awards. We thought extra publicity will not hurt so we are encouraging others to continue submitting NetHooks nominations so that we can “hopefully” become a finalist and receive some publicity.

The two awards that we were nominated for were the BEST DESIGN and BEST NEW STARTUP for 2007.  You can click on the button above to nominate.

Thanks for all  your support.

Kristen Nicole of Mashable wrote a cool article on NetHooks last week.

Check it out here - Nethooks’ Privacy Features: Enough to Beat LinkedIn?

By now I am sure you are aware that NetHooks provides its users the option to display a My Personal page where you can include a profile photo, pictures and other personal information.

The purpose of the My Personal Page is to include a personal / social touch to your professional profile. The motivation behind this feature is the thought that at some point in your professional networking, your connections might want to know the face behind the profile. They may also be interested to know what social traits you have in common.

Perhaps you are thinking …why do I need a My personal page on NetHooks when I already have a Facebook account? The NetHooks My Personal page is not meant to replace your Facebook account (in the very near future, you will be able to import your Facebook information into NetHooks). For the record, we love Facebook. But Facebook is a social networking site (and NetHooks is a professional networking site). Because of this, sharing all of the personal/social information from your Facebook account may not be appropriate for professional networking. The NetHooks My Personal page allows you to include appropriate photos and information for a social touch while still keeping things professional.

How will it work with HR and hiring managers since looking at photos while making hiring decisions could possibly lead to discrimination lawsuits? We have setup a privacy tool which allows users to decide who gets to see your My Personal profile. This privacy tool gives you 3 options.

Option 1 – Public: Allows you to display your My Personal page publicly to everyone on NetHooks. So when users visit your profile on NetHooks either directly or through the Search Network page, the My Personal tab will be visible.

Option 2 - Private: Allows you to completely shut your My Personal page on NetHooks. Although the page can still be viewed by you through your Member Portal, others will not be able to see this page. Making your my Personal page Private rather than deleting it completely, leaves it open for future use.

Option 3 – Public to select users: This option allows you to decide who gets to see your My Personal page. You will be presented with a list of your connections and from there you can select those who will see your Personal page. Those who are not selected to view your page will not even know that you have a My Personal page. In fact, you can even set a completely different url for your My Personal page than for your Profile page.

So back to the question, why did NetHooks include social elements in Professional Networking? Simple. Not everyone who uses NetHooks is looking for a job. Some are connecting with their professors, some are soliciting business or performing contract work and some are casually looking to connect with other professionals. For all these scenarios and more… social elements within a professional profile may be the icing on the cake for professional networking. Besides, since this feature is optional and can be turned off and on, you have full control on how you want to use it.

We wish you the best in your networking efforts. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or feedback.

Well, it is about time. We will start giving out invites starting tomorrow for our private beta. Please feel free to sign up for an invitation from the home page.

Here are some of the features of NetHooks that will be released as part of our Private Beta.

1. NetHooks is Free for everyone!!! (Even after we graduate from our Beta)
   
2. Social Elements – NetHooks is a professional networking site that provides social networking elements all on the same platform. This means that you can have a personal profile with pictures and comments on the same profile. The best part of this feature is the privacy feature where you can choose to display the page publically for everyone to see or privately to only selected individuals.
3. Q/A section – NetHooks offers a Q/A page which allows users to post specific questions to others.  Users have the option to display their answers publicly on their Q & A section for others to see (this prevents answering the same questions multiple times).
4. Sample Work – NetHooks allows university students to display some of their works as part of their profile. Users can post sample works such as sample codes, art, thesis paper, designs, blue prints and etc.
5. Screen Contacts - This privacy feature allows users to set screening questions before a user can start contacting you. The purpose of this feature is to allow you to control the quality of users who can connect with you.
6. Internship listings – NetHooks will be one of the only sites to provide a comprehensive list of internships online. Internship service is currently free for all users.
7. Job Postings – NetHooks also provides job posting services within the site. Job postings are currently free for all users.
8. Event Listings – NetHooks provides event listings for recruiting events, job fairs, workshops, networking events, and conferences currently throughout North America.