Like me, you may have noticed a new element in your LinkedIn timeline: connections giving and receiving endorsements of the skills and expertise of those in their networks.

This is a clever, simple functional enhancement from LinkedIn that not only immediately degrades the scant value that influence metrics such as Klout, Kred and PeerIndex offer, but that also has the potential to steal professional attention from them entirely.

Endorsements (+K) of ‘influential topics’ within Klout are diminished by their contextual inappropriateness; endorsements of skills and expertise within LinkedIn are enhanced by their contextual relevance.

For me, the new skills and expertise functionality strengthens LinkedIn’s status as a facilitator of the relationships that power social business, and further degrades user interest in influence metrics.