can someone pls explain LinkedIn 'endorsements'!?

groovygrl

OK, I understand the concept of endorsements (pretty much the equivalent of FB likes IMO and prob don't hold a ton of weight but make you look good if you have a lot?) but I feel weird when ppl endorse me on skills they are not familiar with and the whole concept of feeling like I should be thanking them or endorsing them back? The oddest (and least likely to make me feel guilty) are the acquaintances or friends who know nothing of my work, yet endorse me for things...the ones that I feel more funny about are the people I have worked with who endorse me (thanks!) for things they know about (should I be endorsed back at them if it is someone whose work I think is good?) or strangely, endorse me for skills that are unrelated to the work I did when I worked with them.
Thoughts?
ETA Also why have people been able to endorse me for skills I didn't add to the list but then their endorsements don't come up on my profile?

2-Step

One thing I've noticed about LinkedIn is that it constantly suggests you endorse people at the top of the page. I've had a few of my older co-workers endorse me for things that were random and then had them say- oh i got your "invitation" to endorse you and I did it! 

I think they think I asked them for the endorsement and felt obligated to do it, because it actually does kind of look that way if you don't know a lot about social media. I find it odd too, but I am a freelancer and I rely a lot on my LinkedIn page so if people want to endorse me I say go for it! I won't endorse others unless I really feel they deserve it though. 

My MIL endorsed me for e-mail marketing the other day. She has no idea if I know how to do e-mail marketing other than the fact that I might have told her that once! But, she was the head of a huge department at a very well-known company, so I guess it still makes me look good. So, yeah, you can't give them too much weight. 

TCMom78

They are useless. It pulls keywords from your profile and people just click to endorse you-- the prompts to do so seem random.