If LinkedIn was actually useful then it would be worth 50 billion

There has been lots of discussion following LinkedIn's IPO about whether it is really worth 9 billion dollars.

The thing is that LinkedIn is the best and only true social network for professionals.

The problem is that basically LinkedIn is largely optional, largely an amusement, and for many people, just not necessary.

It's an absolute disgrace that LinkedIn has not worked out how to actually be useful. It SHOULD be an absolutely critical, essential part of every professional persons working day.

Instead it's basically a resume storage site which doesn't do much more than say who has just connected to who. Ho hum. I am actively bored by being hit with a list of who has connected to who - I just don't care.

HOWEVER, if LinkedIn actually managed to work out how to stop being bloody useless then it would easily be comparable in value to Facebook.

The question is, can Reed Hoffman and his team manage to work out how to make the largest network of professionals into something more thana trumped up resume publication service with a dash of twitter on the side?

Problem is that there is NO SIGN that the people running this company have any idea of the value of what they are sitting on, nor to they seem to have ANY CLUE how to turn LinkedIn into something of value.

What a waste of a HUGE opportunity. Reed's good idea was to connect professionals, but that's where his good ideas ended.

And yes, I DO think I could do better. It just doesn't seem that hard.