LinkedIn introduced a new tool that's a twist on the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game — but for professionals.
The social network launched "How You're Connected" on Wednesday, a visual enhancement that explores your path to a contact. "When looking for an introduction to someone you may not know yet, you will now not only see 'who' in your network knows them on their Profile, but also 'how' they know each other to help you decide the best contact to request an introduction from," Udi Milo, a product manager at LinkedIn, wrote in a blog post.
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Here's a look at the new tool:

Three Albright College students, Craig Fass, Brian Turtle and Mike Ginelli, are credited with inventing the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game around 1994. The idea, inspired by Bacon's claim that he had worked with everyone in Hollywood, was to connect any actor to Kevin Bacon using six links or fewer. The concept was a twist on "six degrees of separation," a popular trope positing that everyone on Earth was just six friends or acquaintances removed from everyone else.
For LinkedIn, the utility is obvious. Per the blog post:
So let’s say you’re an advertising professional looking for an introduction to the CMO of a company you’d love to do business with. You might find one mutual connection attended school with her before she kick started her career but another worked with her recently on a very high-profile campaign. Chances are, the connection that worked with her recently is more likely to have a stronger, more relevant connection and therefore be the best source for an introduction.
The feature will roll out to English-speaking users on Wednesday.
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