LinkedIn bug - delay of connection updating

I just ran into a LinkedIn bug. I sent out a connection invitation this morning and soon received the email message that says "Congratulations! You and so-and-so are now connected. ... View so-and-so's profile to..." So, I clinked the link to view so-and-so's profile and I immediately notice that there is a "How you're connected to so-and-so" panel on the right side of the page that says that I have to go through other connections to get to so-and-so and that I am a 3rd-degree connection. In other words, the Web portion of LinkedIn does not know what the email side just told me. Obviously they have a database update synchronization problem. Sigh. Silly me, I thought we were in the 21st century. I wonder how I got that crazy idea!

Now, this could simply be some sort of operational "service" disruption, but even then it suggests a design flaw: the email should not have gone out or at least not said that you "are now connected" when that was not exactly true. Maybe they simply need to add some text to say that the connection will be made in "a few minutes." Or, beef up their computing "cloud" and fix the logic error.

I just refreshed the profile page for so-and-so and it still said that I was am only a 3rd-degree connection. I then went to my own page, clicked on connections, saw that so-and-so was now on my list, clicked on so-and-so's name and I still saw the same profile page suggesting I was still only a 3rd-degree connection. I hit refresh again, and now finally LinkedIn shows that we are connected.

That may have taken about five minutes or more. LinkedIn may be experiencing load issues, but that is no excuse for invalid logic (stating that something is a fact when it is not yet a fact.)

Another possibility is that Google Chrome was not refeshing the page properly when requested, but I would say that is much less likely.

-- Jack Krupansky