Beginning Friday of this week, LinkedIn will start allowing individuals to upload photos to their profiles. The business-oriented site has been photo-free for the past four years, adopting a more conservative tone; however they claim that the most demanded feature from users was profile photos, so they have decided to give in.

LinkedIn’s Adam Nash says that many people recognize friends and colleagues more easily by face than by name, and that photos will provide for “richer professional connections online.” While that’s probably true, I can’t help but think of the negative repercussions that profile photos could have on such a wonderful tool as LinkedIn.

One of LinkedIn’s three main features is the potential for career advancement, or the ability to “discover inside connections when you’re looking for a job or new business opportunity.” In the past individuals have been able to find new or better jobs on LinkedIn based on their experience and skillset (and rightfully so). Adding profile pictures completely changes the game, as now decisions will in many cases be influenced on personal preferences. If a manager is looking at two profiles for potential candidates and finds one to be more attractive than the other, you can bet he or she will take that into account when making their decision. It’s unfortunate and it sucks, but it’s the way the world works.

I know it’s far too late for LinkedIn to reconsider this decision, so I will wish them the best in implementing this new feature. The good news, they have developed a pretty stringent array of privacy settings for profile photos, whereby a user can make their photo visible from everyone down to no one. The bad news, they have begun the trek away from the business-like and professional environment that created their 14 million user base.