LinkedIn and Evernote announced a new partnership today that should excite diehard networkers, unless perhaps they’re CardMunch users. LinkedIn will shutter its business card scanning app July 14, in favour of Evernote’s updated Business Card Camera, a premium Evernote feature currently available for iOS and coming soon to Android.
The partnership allows Evernote to build richer contact notes for its Premium users by accessing LinkedIn’s database to provide photos and LinkedIn profile connections in addition to the contact info scanned from the card. Users don’t have to be connected to their business contact on LinkedIn to get the additional information, but they will have to connect their LinkedIn account to Evernote. After scanning the card, users will have the option to connect with their contact on LinkedIn, share their own contact information, or save the new contact’s info in their mobile address book. Evernote says the scanning and recognition process, as wells as the LinkedIn integration, happens automatically and mechanically, without any human eyes looking at your contact data.
Evernote users can receive a free year of the Premium business card scanning feature simply by connecting their accounts to LinkedIn. Irked CardMunch users also have a few options. They can move all their CardMunch contacts to Evernote and receive an additional second year of free access to the feature, or request a download of their CardMunch info if they aren’t Evernote users.
It’s easy to see how this makes sense for both companies. Evernote eliminates a potential competitor and adds more value to its Premium offering as part of its quest to become the repository of all professional data. LinkedIn leverages Evernote’s user base to increase LinkedIn connections and activity without having to manage an app. It’s a smart move, but also another example of a larger company pulling out after acquiring a mobile app supplementary to its core service that it just didn’t know what to do with.
So long, CardMunch: it was nice to make your acquaintance, if only for a little while.
[source]Evernote[/source]
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