Before, LinkedIn only told you the day in which a particular timeline event occurred. Now they're a little more precise.
So, for the record, I DID send a message to (blank) who recently became a consultant at (blank), and had only announced this fact to the world within the previous two hours.
I don't know that this data always serves a useful purpose, or if it ever serves a useful purpose, but it's easy enough to gather, and it doesn't take up a lot of room, so I'm glad that LinkedIn is providing it.
