[hawkharris]

I agree with the author's criticism of LinkedIn. My biggest problem with the service is its default placeholder text for connection requests ("David Smith would like to connect with you...").

To me this takes all of the fun and excitement out of networking, not to mention the clarity. When I network with people face-to-face, I always get a sense of how they may want to work with me in the future. E.g. Maybe they're a designer; I'm a programmer; we could collaborate on X kind of project.

LinkedIn's placeholder text makes connections seem generic and less useful. Today I received five networking requests, but, unlike with real-life networking, I have no clear idea of why the people are reaching out to me.