Author: Serkadis

Kaiser Health News staff writer Christopher Weaver details events similar to this summer’s “death panel” controversy, but that happened decades ago. “It was early summer. A senior federal health official wrote a memo suggesting that living wills — documents that can convey patients’ wishes about when to end life support — could help curb health-care costs. The memo leaked to the media. By August, a New York Times’ column said the official ‘likes euthanasia.’ Sound like this year’s angry August? Well, this story unfolded in 1977, and the official in question was Robert Derzon, the first administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (11/10). Read entire story.

Kaiser Health News offers a fresh perspective on health policy developments with David Fitzsimmons’ “A Christmas Carol.”

CBS News reports: “Sarah Palin has returned to the battle over health care reform with a familiar refrain, slamming what she and others dubbed ‘death panels’ over the summer. Following passage of the health care overhaul in the House on Saturday night, Palin took to her Facebook page to register her well-known opposition to the Democratic plan. The former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee has received the most attention for coming back in the post to her claim that the bill contains so-called ‘death panels’ – despite the fact that numerous media organizations and nonpartisan fact-checkers have said in the past that there is no such thing in the bill” (Hechtkopf, 11/9).

Kaiser Health News and NPR take a historical look at the controversy: “It was early summer. A senior federal health official wrote a memo suggesting that living wills — documents that can convey patients’ wishes about when to end life support — could help curb health-care costs. The memo leaked to the media. By August, a New York Times’ column said the official ‘likes euthanasia.’ Sound like this year’s angry August? Well, this story unfolded in 1977, and the official in question was Robert Derzon, the first administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.” (Weaver, 11/10).

The New York Times interviews Ab Klink, the Dutch health minister, about the Dutch view of U.S. health care: “The health system in the United States may be twice as expensive as those in Europe, and the population may be less healthy, but at least Americans have access to many more choices of doctors and insurers. Right? No,” [Klink says]. Klink was in Washington, D.C. for an annual meeting sponsored by the Commonwealth Fund, which recently “released the results of a survey of doctors from 11 countries that reflected poorly on the United States.”

“The Dutch are in the midst of a significant health overhaul to inject greater competition into the nation’s insurance and hospital markets … In the Netherlands, everyone chooses from a list of 10 or so insurers who offer a standardized health plan that can be enriched with other options. Those who cannot afford the premiums are given subsidies; premiums are based on the benefits offered, not on a person’s age, health status or sex” (Harris, 11/9).

Hospitals are beginning to rebound from the recession, which many economists think ended last month. The Dallas Morning News reports: “Thompson Reuters Corp., a New York-based financial information company, tracked 439 hospitals nationwide – 37 in Texas – covering small, medium and large community hospitals and teaching hospitals” to create a report released Monday that showed the change.

“Among the key findings: The percentage of hospital revenue left over after regular business expenses increased from zero in the third quarter of 2008 to 4 percent in the second quarter this year.”

The Thompson Reuters analysis also found that the “average number of days that hospitals could run their business with money readily available increased from 90 days in the first quarter to 150 days in the second quarter.” Hospital patient discharges – “the common way of counting hospital visits” – decreased  with the onset of the recession, “but now it’s growing. … Hospitals once were thought to be recession-proof, but they’ve been hurt by the 10.2 percent unemployment rate and the 6 million jobs lost since December 2007” (Roberson, 11/9).

The Associated Press/The Houston Chronicle reports that Texas lawmakers will add $5 million to expand mental health services — specifically veteran-to-veteran peer support groups — in the state. “Gov. Rick Perry on Monday announced the plan that calls for directing money from the state Health and Human Services Commission budget toward mental health treatment programs for veterans and their families” (11/9).

The New York Times: In an address Monday to the New York state Legislature, Gov. David Paterson called for wide cuts to cover a budget shortfall. Critics believe that New York can no longer afford to spend more than any other state on programs such as Medicaid. “Education and health care advocates have angrily opposed proposed cuts to Medicaid and school financing, the two largest parts of the state’s budget, and the powerful labor unions that dominate debate in the capital are determined to fight them” (Hakim, 11/9).

The Charleston (W. Va.) Gazette reports that Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has asked the West Virginia Health and Human Resources department how much a proposed Medicaid expansion in Congress would cost that state. “In a letter dated Friday, the Republican congresswoman asked Hardy to estimate how the Affordable Health Care for America Act would affect West Virginia’s budget, saying the legislation could ‘lead to a troubling unfunded mandate for state governments’” (Knezevich, 11/8).

The American Medical Association, the official physician lobby, reiterated its endorsement of the House bill Monday. The Associated Press/The Washington Post reports that the AMA “on Monday rebuffed dissident members and voted to stick with support for ongoing health reform efforts, while reiterating wariness over proposals that threaten doctors’ pocketbooks and independence. The action at the group’s semiannual meeting in Houston could be seen as a vote of confidence for AMA leaders who voiced support for the $1.2-trillion, 10-year bill the U.S. House passed Saturday.” Debate regarding proposals to change the group’s policy position “spurred a lengthy debate Sunday that went on for more than eight hours. However, during a two-hour discussion Monday, delegates – physician members who set AMA policy – voted instead to follow the more moderate path chosen by AMA’s leaders including its president, Dr. James Rohack” (Rhor and Tanner, 11/19).

Congress Daily also reports on the AMA’s decision to maintain its endorsement of the House bill, “saying [the measure] was not perfect but was worth standing behind to move the overhaul effort forward. Some state medical associations and specialty societies rejected AMA’s stance mainly over the House bill’s inclusion of the public option” (11/10). 

Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on surveys of physician opinion: “U.S. physicians are torn over what the government should do to make health care more available and affordable, but they’re surprisingly like-minded about one perceived scourge – the insurance industry. As the U.S. Senate considers the health-care bill that narrowly passed the House over the weekend, polls and pundits have tried to gauge doctors’ support for change. The most up-to-date national survey of physicians, published in September in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that most favored expanding health coverage to the uninsured through a government-sponsored program – the so-called public option. The House bill included this choice for needy individuals and small businesses, but it faces tough opposition in the Senate” (McCullough, 11/10). 

The Tampa Bay Business Journal reports on another survey that found doctors are concerned about tort reform: “Seventy-four percent of American physicians believe they have less control over the way they practice medicine than they did five years ago, mostly due to medical malpractice litigation. That’s according to a survey published Friday by Atlanta-based Jackson Healthcare, which also cited insurance and government interference as reasons. The majority, 85 percent, said the threat of medical malpractice litigation is their primary hindrance to practicing medicine as they see fit. … The survey found that 62 percent of physicians disagreed with the American Medical Association’s (AMA) stance on health care reform. … [and] found other key elements physicians want included in legislation” (11/9).

The Washington Post reports that “the House’s passage Saturday of a sweeping health-care bill has pushed the advertising battle over reform into a new phase, as competing groups have taken to the airwaves to thank or punish Democrats for their votes.” MoveOn.org, for instance, “launched a $500,000 television campaign Monday targeting lawmakers who voted no, including first-termers such as Rep. Glenn Nye (Va.).” Another group — Health Care for America Now— is spending money thanking freshmen lawmakers from battleground districts for their “yes” votes (Davis and Pershing, 11/10).

The Hill reports that such “vulnerable” seats are sure to be hotly contested in next year’s midterm elections, and health bill votes will be key to opponents’ campaigns. “Many of the at-risk members could soon be on the spot again, and the reactions they get between now and then will have a big impact on the bill’s future. … Playing off the uncertainty, some of the 39 Democrats who opposed the bill Saturday left open the possibility of supporting an improved version” (Blake, 11/10).

In a separate story, The Hill reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t waver on the inclusion of some public plan in the bill, even when several White House officials — including President Obama himself — didn’t make a large push for the public plan. “The House’s passage of the government-run plan is a testament to Pelosi’s perseverance, tactics and vote-counting abilities. It’s also a demonstration of how she manages the different factions of her caucus” (Soraghan, 11/9).

Politico reports that “Saturday night’s House vote on health care reform was the most significant liberal legislative triumph in years, and progressives are now scrambling to capitalize on the fast-fading momentum.” And, while few on the left think the House-passed measure will make it into law as is, they do hope “the 220-215 House vote will steel the spines of Democrats in the Senate, where it’s currently hard to see how any bill with a public option even gets to a floor vote” (Thrush, 11/10).

Meanwhile, Roll Call reports that the GOP is taking its own tactic with Pelosi and Democrats who voted for the bill: hammering them on the bill over the Veterans Day recess. “In a letter attached to the party’s 13-page district work period briefing packet, Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (Ind.) encouraged GOP Members to spend the Veterans Day recess talking about how ‘Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990 page bill’ will further ravage the ailing economy and destroy the American health insurance system if it becomes law” (Kucinich, 11/9).

ABC News reports that the Democratic National Committee is in turn targeting Republicans who opposed health reform in the House. “The DNC’s plans include press events and news releases, not TV advertisements, though a party spokesman said paid ads could come later” (Klein, 11/9).

ABC News reports that the abortion amendment to the House health reform bill has reignited a fiery debate on one of the most controversial issues in the country.”  Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, “said in a statement that the restrictions the amendment would place on a woman’s right to choose ‘sets a terrible precedent and marks a significant step backwards.’ She has gathered 40 signatures from House Democrats “promising to oppose any final bill that includes the amendment.” She has also asked the White House for a meeting with President Obama (Friedman, 11/9).

The Hill on the thorny road that abortion-rights advocates face: “A number of avowed pro-choice Democrats voted for the (Rep. Bart) Stupak amendment — a pattern that could repeat itself on the Senate floor — underscoring that abortion-rights supporters face a more difficult challenge than on other abortion-related votes” (Young, 11/9).

Roll Call: “But the flurry of letter-writing and threats to bring down the bill over the abortion issue mirrored an earlier battle over the public insurance option. And in that debate, liberals vowed to vote down any version of the plan not based on Medicare rates only to later vote en masse for a weaker version” (Newmyer, 11/10).

Finally, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that even women who receive no federal subsidies for their health care coverage could not use insurance exchanges set up by the federal government to purchase coverage that covers abortion: “Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., said it is ‘ridiculous’ to expect women to buy separate policies for abortion coverage. ‘No one plans an unplanned pregnancy,’ she said” (Lochhead, 11/10).

What do a crane game, two Iron Men, and Wall-E have in common? They’re all some of the amazing costumes you guys sent in to our First Annual Costume Contest. You’ve all picked your winners and it’s time to unveil him – or her – to the world…

It was a heavily contested race and some of you weren’t happy with the results but Karen AKA Miss Firefox won our costume contest. Her mix of cleverness and cute beat out even two Iron Men and my personal favorite, Wall-E. Thanks to all the entrants and stay tuned for more great contests!

It was early summer. A senior federal health official wrote a memo suggesting that living wills — documents that can convey patients’ wishes about when to end life support — could help curb health-care costs.

The memo leaked to the media. By August, a New York Times’ column said the official “likes euthanasia.”

Sound like this year’s angry August? Well, this story unfolded in 1977, and the official in question was Robert Derzon, the first administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration, now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Derzon’s memo said, “The cost-savings from a nationwide push toward ‘Living Wills’ is likely to be enormous.” But, it also warned of “some negative public reaction.” (Read the full memo here.)   

In an August 14, 1977, column, a Times writer called the note an “amazing disclosure of the extent to which some in the Government would go to reduce medical costs.”

But that’s not exactly what Derzon, who died in June from swine flu, had in mind.

At his recent memorial service, Clifton Gaus, an associate administrator at HCFA and co-author of the controversial memo, explained. “The hysteria, misinformation and accusations were vicious and lasted for weeks,” Gaus recalled at the memorial service. “What is more surprising is that this country has made big strides in [patients’] rights to living wills and in making death more comfortable,” he said. “Yet the fringe critics still are able to command huge media attention.”

Former New York Lieutenant Governor and health-care firebrand Betsy McCaughey leveled similar accusations about death panels and current White House adviser Ezekiel Emanuel, who has written about end-of-life care, in the New York Post this summer. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin modernized the hysteria over end-of-life care when she popularized the term death panel” in an August Facebook post.

The claims went viral in August town halls around the country, but were quickly debunked by news reports, including in the New York Times, which called the rumor “false” in a headline.

But, back in the ’70s, “The New York Times did exactly what the crazies have done years later,” Gaus said in an interview. Gaus, who also shared his eulogy notes, added that he brought up the unfortunate chapter in his boss’s career in order to set the record straight. “It’s chillingly parallel” to today’s debate, he said.

The House Democrats’ health care bill — which passed Saturday — preserved the provision to pay for end-of-life counseling, with some extra caveats emphasizing that the counseling is voluntary and not meant to “encourage the promotion of suicide or assisted suicide.” The Senate Finance Committee scrapped it altogether after complaints by leading Republicans and August protests.

Pardon us while we think out loud, but that high resolution screen with an HTC Sense UI-looking clock/weather widget looks like Android to us. We’ve also confirmed that this photo was taken of a Verizon handset, and with all signs pointing to an impending release, we’re just going to venture out on a limb and say that we believe this photo is of HTC’s next Android device for Verizon Wireless. In case you forgot, the rumored device we’re talking about is supposedly one bad ass piece of telephonery — 5 megapixel camera, Android 2.0, and much, much more. One of connects said this thing could be out as early as Black Friday, and while it seems a little far fetched, we’re slowly coming around to the possibility.

UPDATE: Actually, I meant to write mid-December. Our previous scoop said either the Curve2 or Dragon would come out around Black Friday, and we know that the Curve2 is being released on November 20th.

You know what day it is! Herein lies my usual review round-up (see yesterday’s preview), starring Modern Warfare 2. Right now I’ll highlight the good in the game, and later today I’ll highlight the bad. Very exciting, yes.

From 1UP (gave the game an “A”:

Mixing real-world locations with bombastic set-pieces MW2 continues the guided, thrill-ride experiences of its predecessor, and adds even more depth to its multiplayer offerings. It might not have fixed all the problems from the first game, but there’s just so much quality content packed into this game that it will almost certainly be one of the most-played games in your library for a long time to come.

From IGN (gave the game a “9.5,” but I wanted to see a “9.7”):

When you look at the total package, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is hands-down one of the best first-person shooters out there, and a truly amazing offering across any system. For those planning to check out everything Modern Warefare 2 has to offer – online competition, full co-op Spec Ops mode, as well as the campaign – you’re looking at a no-brainer purchase. For the strictly single player crowd, however, Modern Warfare 2 is surprisingly short, and doesn’t live up to the standard set by previous Call of Duty games. The campaign can be completed in as little as four and a half hours, and the missions make better scenarios and moment-to-moment adrenaline rushes than they do a cohesive, well-told story. If you’re going solo, you’ve officially been warned. Look at the complete Modern Warfare 2 experience though, and there’s no denying its rightful place at the top.

From Kotaku (no review number, thank God):

Modern Warfare 2 may not innovate or raise the bar as impressively as Call of Duty 4 did in order to grant it automatic game of the year consideration. The better praise it may deserve is that it’s likely the game that many will be playing well into next year.

From Joystiq (no review number, thank God)

Though we can’t comment on the plastic night vision goggles or the other bonuses you’ll get in the Hardened and Prestige editions, the actual disc containing the game is well worth every cent you’ll shell out for it. The single-player campaign might not engross you enough to want to play through the entire game again, but multiplayer and Spec Ops will both bring you back many, many times.

I’ll add more as I find ‘em throughout the day.

Additionally, later today I’ll do a round-up of negative things about the game—it seems the single-player is a bit short, which is a problem for me since I’m primarily a single-player guy—as well as some other Modern Warfare 2-related ideas I’ve got in my head.

Oh, I’m pretty sure none of us have the game yet, so it’ll be a while before you see one of us say “I think the game is such and such.”

Short Version: When Nokia first announced their Netbook 3G, expectations were mixed. After all, Nokia defined the mobile phone space but they’ve hardly been good at expanding out of the handset market. My take? This is a bit too underpowered and a bit too generic to be a truly great Nokia product but, given the price ($299 with contract) it may be a nice tertiary computer for on-the-go users.

Well, It’s Small

This is one of the smallest netbooks I’ve had the pleasure to carry. It weighs less than three pounds and is about 12 inches long. It is quite thin and the 10-inch, 1280×720 pixel screen is covered in glossy glass. The keyboard us tucked tight against the screen giving you about four inches of palm space on the wrist-rest/trackpad portion versus the same space for all the keys.

The model we tested had a 120GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and a Intel Atom Z530 Processor running at 1.6 GHz. I has an SD card slot, SIM slot, and supports WiFi and Bluetooth. It includes an HDMI out port and a 1.3 megapixel camera. It is made of lightweight aluminum and has a definite MacBook feel except for the rounded front and top.

It also includes integrated A-GPS and GPS along with Ovi Maps, Nokia’s mapping software. It runs Windows 7 Starter edition. More on that shortly.

So what is this thing?
If your first question about the Booklet 3G is “Where can I buy it?” you may be slightly surprised. The Booklet is selling at Best Buy for $299.99 with two year Data Connect contract which ensures you’ll have 3G Internet in areas, presumably, where AT&T 3G is supported. It costs $599.99 without contract.

What you’re essentially buying here, then, is one of the first carrier subsidized netbooks. The question, here, then is whether to buy one of AT&Ts other mobile offerings for about $300 (*cough* iPhone *cough*) or a laptop with a keyboard and Windows 7. Call me old fashioned, but my money is still on a 3G phone when it comes to anything with a screen and a Mi-Fi dongle when it comes to portable networking. To lock yourself into one laptop for two years, especially one so underpowered, is, unfortunately, folly.

The Booklet scored 2.2 on the Windows Experience Index which puts it in the same classification as that old Dell in the closet or a potato ricer. It got 774 on GeekBench, a fairly lackadaisical score considering the year old MSI Wind scored 837.

The question, then, is whether this thing is a really big cellphone or a small, underpowered laptop. Given that you can’t make calls on it, I’m aiming for the latter. The buy-in required to own it is also a bit onerous.

Bad News: It’s Laggy
The biggest problem I found was lag. Closing a window takes a few seconds while browsing the web is an exercise in frustration. Because the processor can’t render pages fast enough you find yourself waiting quite a bit. YouTube videos took quite a while to load while other Flash load times were interminable. Netbooks were designed for web use and this is one slow web device.

The trackpad buttons are also a bit hard to press, which adds insult to laggy injury.

Good News: It literally lasts for hours
At first couldn’t test the battery on this thing because I didn’t have enough time to sit around and watch it. This laptop literally keeps going and going. It’s rated for 12 hours and I saw about 10 hours in movie playback. That’s great.

So who is it good for?
I feel that the Booklet is an odd chimera by any standard. It’s a netbook by one of the most famous cellphone makers and it’s subsidized like a cellphone but is not worth its unsubsidized price. In a nutshell, it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Perhaps there is a market out there for subsidized netbooks. Perhaps a fleet of these things given out to a sales force in lieu of BlackBerrys might make sense. However, I’d be hard-pressed to find a mobile professional who wants to skimp on processor power to get WWAN capabilities.

I think devices like the Booklet are filling a hole in the market that will soon be overtaken by standalone, wireless WWAN-to-WiFi devices or, dare I say it, WiMax dongles. Until then, devices like this will fill that void although I feel that the end user will be underserved with these devices.

However, Nokia has proven it can make and build a nice netback, all things being equal, for the low end of the market. Is it a dream device? No, but it’s a strong showing and if they can get the unsubsidized price down to the subsidized price I’d be willing to recommend it to the general user.

The New York Times: “As health care legislation moves toward a crucial airing in the Senate, the White House is facing a growing revolt from some Democrats and analysts who say the bills Congress is considering do not fulfill President Obama’s promise to slow the runaway rise in health care spending. … The debate underscores a fundamental tension inside the White House between cost-containment idealists and pragmatists.”

“Senator Susan Collins, the Maine Republican whose vote the administration is courting, convened a news conference on Monday with Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a member of the Republican leadership, to spotlight her concerns over cost containment. Ms. Collins said she had been meeting with a group of moderate Democrats who shared her views” (Stolberg, 11/9).

Democratic leaders in the administration and Senate have favored the pragmatic approach to keep health reform legislation moving, the The New York Times reports in a second story. “But if the flexibility shown by party leaders on issues like abortion and the proposed government-run insurance plan has kept the legislative process on track, it has also left many liberals off balance and risked alienating the party’s base as the midterm elections approach” (Nagourney and Herszenhorn, 11/10).

Republicans are continuing to argue that the bill will actually drive up costs, The Washington Times reports. They say “the health care bill includes two dozen programs whose funding is listed as ‘such sums as may be necessary.’ That amounts to legislative jargon, they said, for ‘We’ll bill you later’” (Dinan, 11/10).

For at least some people, the bill could easily increase costs, The Wall Street Journal reports. “The bill would limit how much insurers can vary premiums based on the age of the person buying the policy. The narrower the range, the lower the premiums for older people, a help to those who currently pay some of the highest rates for insurance and often need coverage the most. But such a limitation tends to raise premiums for younger folks, who are sometimes reluctant to buy coverage” (Mathews, 11/10).

Need a dirt cheap and somewhat underpowered notebook? Best Buy has you covered with a $249 Acer laptop. Netbook, what?

The exact model will be revealed tomorrow, but at least the key specs have been released today: an Intel Celeron 900 CPU, 2GB of memory, and a 160GB hard drive. Chances are the screen will be around 15-inches too and it will have the standard assortment of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DVD optical drive, webcam, and a 6-cell battery life. But for $249, who cares. It’s not like your mom is going to do anything but play Farkle on Facebook anyway.

The upcoming Resident Evil: Afterlife sees the return of the cast from the last movie, welcoming Wentworth Miller to play Chris Redfield. Wouldn’t b…

Google said Tuesday it is working with airports in the U.S. as well as Boingo Wireless, Advanced Wireless Group, Airport Marketing Income and others to provide free Wi-Fi as a "holiday gift" through January 15, 2010.

The free Wi-Fi is available in 47 airports, including Las Vegas, San Jose, Boston, Baltimore, Burbank, Houston Indianapolis, Seattle, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, St. Louis and Charlotte. As a result of this project, Burbank and Seattle airports will begin offering airport-wide free Wi-Fi indefinitely.

"We’re very happy to extend our Holiday Wi-Fi gift to the millions of people who will spend time in airports over the next few months," said Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience at Google.

"We know that this is a very hectic travel season for people, and we hope that free Wi-Fi will make both traveling and connecting with friends and family a little bit easier."

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, over 100 million people will pass through the participating airports between now and January 15, 2010. Travelers often have extra time on their hands after they pass through security for a variety of reasons, including bad weather.

A recent study by the Wi-Fi Alliance found 50 percent of business travelers take red-eye flights in order to be "reachable" during business hours, and the majority (82%) said that being connected via Wi-Fi would help solve that problem.

"Google gets this year’s Wi-Fi Santa award for sponsoring complimentary access in dozens of airports, both to the traveler’s and airport’s benefit," said Dave Hagan, president and CEO of Boingo Wireless.

"In addition to the obvious bonus holiday travelers will enjoy, sponsored access will increase overall Wi-Fi usage in the participating airports and help supplement the airport’s increasingly important non-airline incremental revenue."

In keeping with the spirit of the season, travelers who log on to networks of the participating airports will have the option to make a donation to Engineers Without Borders, the One Economy Corporation or the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. Google said it will match the donations made across all the networks up to $250,000, and the airport network that generates the highest amount per passenger by January 1 will receive $15,000 to donate to a local nonprofit of their choice.

In October, Google partnered with Virgin America to offer free in-flight WiFi to all passengers flying with the airline. Five of the airports participating in the program are also Virgin America destinations: Boston, Seattle, Las Vegas, San Diego and Virgin America’s newest destination launching November 18, Fort Lauderdale.

Related Articles:

>Google And Virgin America To Offer Free WiFi During The Holidays

>American Expands In-Flight Internet Service

>The American In-Flight Internet Revolution

 

 

LinkedIn has developed a reputation for being a rather sedate, professional site.  Twitter, on the other hand, is at the anything-goes, trend-of-the-minute end of the social networking spectrum.  But last night, the two companies announced a partnership that should see a bit of back-and-forth result.

A post on the LinkedIn Blog explained, "When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing.  And when you tweet, you can send that message to your LinkedIn connections as well, from any Twitter service or tool."

The integration makes a fair amount of sense since so many people use Twitter for self-promotion.  Job hunters will now be able to more easily enlist their entire Twitter networks in the search.  And at the same time, potential employers will be able to more easily see how individuals operate on a day-to-day basis.

Folks who alternate work-related tweets with "this is what I had for lunch" material are covered, too, though, since the new feature will allow users to just select certain tweets to be shared.

As you can see in the above video, LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman and Twitter’s Biz Stone seem rather pleased with the arrangement.  Bonus points may go to Hoffman for giving Twitter the first and largest part of the nickname "TwitterIn."

 

Related Articles:

> Twitter Analytics Service Gets Off To Great Start

> LinkedIn Tests A New Design

> Facebook Most Widely Used Network Among Businesses