LinkedIn has chosen Microsoft’s Azure cloud services to help it perform translations of its users’ posts into other languages and to help people find each other on the platform.
This isn’t much of a surprise since Microsoft owns LinkedIn, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless and indicates closer integration of the two entities.
Soon, if not already, LinkedIn users will be able to see posts by people who don’t post in their preferred language.
LinkedIn is doing this by “tapping a service running in Microsoft’s cloud data centers (sic) to translate the text of its users’ posts into different languages”, says a story on CNBC.com.
That service is Microsoft’s Text Analytics API, an Azure Cognitive Service that also powers Bing, Skype, and Office’s translation capabilities.
This move is part of Microsoft’s drive to not only expand LinkedIn’s features and to improve engagement on the platform, but also to ensure it can support all of the non-English-speaking people who are joining the platform as it extends into new international markets.
It will also make LinkedIn more like other social platforms like Twitter and Facebook, which have had translation options for years already.
Contact by QR code
Another cool new Azure-powered feature is the addition of QR codes that allow users to quickly swap their contact information with each other using the LinkedIn app.
It’s handy for those times when meeting a Mark Smith at a function, who proves hard to find later when attempting to look them up on LinkedIn. By allowing people to swap information immediately with QR code scans, that will be a thing of the past.
If you don’t see the option to translate posts on your own LinkedIn pages, just wait a bit as it is currently rolling out across the world.
The QR code contact-detail-sharing functionality is definitely live as I’ve literally just tested it on my own app. Find it by tapping the icon on the right side of the Search bar, and pressing MY CODE.
Also, kudos if you got the reference I sneakily hid in the header image.
[Header: CC BY 2.0]
