LinkedIN & Microsoft: One World, One Rule.

Trump, gun control, politics, multi-level marketing, and bikinis - oh, how the mighty have fallen.

...and concerns about censorship on LI were just starting to boil...

LinkedIn and Microsoft are well on their way to creating the second biggest "Brother" - ever.

"Pulse" concerns, missing or deleted posts, Robo-suspended accounts and warnings about content are on the rise or at least being exposed.

This merger bodes darkly for the future.

From the email to LinkedIn employees, today:

"Massively scaling the reach and engagement of LinkedIn by using the network to power the social and identity layers of Microsoft's ecosystem of over one billion customers. Think about things like LinkedIn's graph interwoven throughout Outlook, Calendar, Active Directory, Office, Windows, Skype, Dynamics, Cortana, Bing, and more. "

I know...it sounds great, right? I can have all my LI contacts connected to my Skype and whenever I search on Bing, my 'network' will be searched for relevant connections(and their connections and so on). My email will be searched for relevant discussions. My account listing in the accounting system will be searched, bubbling up customers who may have a parallel or direct influence on the subject in question. The web of connectivity runs deep.

Everything connected to everything, machine-like. One platform to support, one company to rule.

But as the past few months have shown, LI users are beginning to flex their creative and humanistic muscles.

Content is shifting from all business to all but business. People are becoming more 'human', online. Matches are being made, and love connections are paired. Political discourse, a seasonal turn, is on the rise. "Chat" room intercourse often sink into insults and name-calling.

People being people, deviant. A centralized machine does not condone deviance.

I am a fan of technology and I believe the Universal Internet of Everyone is inevitable if not upon us now. Great things are possible when the minds of the world focus on a vision.

But who molds that vision? In a centralized, monolithic realm, the masters of the account/comment/newsfeed, rule.

"They" control the picture.

LinkedIN, AoL, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all the other 'free' platforms are not without cost.

We, the users, carry the world of LinkedIn(and every other social media) on our shoulders. Occasionally, we shrug.

In the end, congratulations are in order for Jeff. He built a great product and sold it(out) to a huge concern. Formula.

Next Play.