LinkedIn has launched a new addition to its People Search Experience. It's called "Faceted Search".

Faceted search allows you to search for a person and narrow that search down by specific "facets" as you go along, in order to quickly find the most relevant profiles possible. Users are presented with categories under the following facets as they search: current company, past company, location, relationship, industry, school, and profile language. The following clip nicely sums up how it works:

"The filters are generated in real time for every query by parsing all matching results and extracting the most important attributes," explains LinkedIn's Esteban Kozak. "We then present those to you in an intuitive interface that lets you select one or multiple filters per facet. You can refine, expand or stumble upon insightful information by simply clicking on the search options that matter to you."

Kozak says that Faceted Search improves precision, increases efficiency, and reduces the need for complex queries. "It significantly reduces the need for complex Boolean queries," he says. "This was a particular need we heard from many of our power users."

LinkedIn gave its entire search interface an overhaul earlier this year, and has recently made significant design changes. A couple months ago, the company announced that it had surpassed the 50 million-user milestone.
 

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