LinkedIn Nov. 23 followed through on its plans to launch a development platform, opening Developer.linkedin.com to let software programmers put LinkedIn's profile content into their business applications and Websites. Microsoft is using LinkedIn to add profile information to Microsoft Office 2010 e-mail users with the Outlook Social Connector.
Twitter application TweetDeck will support the LinkedIn platform in its next version, allowing TweetDeck users to access their LinkedIn network updates from within TweetDeck, which will add a LinkedIn column.
Leading professional social network LinkedIn Nov. 23 followed through on its
plans to launch a development platform, opening
Developer.linkedin.com
to let software programmers put LinkedIn's profile content into their business
applications and Web sites.
LinkedIn has helped more than 50 million working professional connect with
others of their ilk, proving to be a fertile ground for business networking and
career opportunities. But this information has been walled off from the rest of
the software world. The LinkedIn developer platform is designed to let
companies add corporate social networking spice to their applications.
Developers will be able to freely use the REST-based APIs LinkedIn has
created and made
available. The LinkedIn platform uses the OAuth standard to let
programmers allow users to easily access their profile information and network
content via a secure log-in.
Adam Nash, vice president of search and platform products at LinkedIn,
noted:
"At LinkedIn, we have always believed that business applications are
better when they are built over a platform of professional reputation and
relationships. In real life, our most valuable professional assets are the
skills and experience we acquire and the trusted relationships we build. It's
not surprising that business software becomes more productive and valuable when
it is built over these services."
Perhaps, but LinkedIn's platform comes after Facebook and MySpace launched
developer platforms in the last couple years.
While the LinkedIn developer site was formally opened for business today,
the company already has several partners. Microsoft is
using LinkedIn to add profile information to Microsoft
Office 2010 e-mail users with the Outlook Social Connector.
Twitter application TweetDeck will support the LinkedIn platform in its next
version, allowing TweetDeck users to access their LinkedIn network updates from
within TweetDeck, which will add a LinkedIn column.
Users will be able to filter the LinkedIn column to only
show certain types of updates from the new filter panel, which will appear when
users click the column header.
ReadWriteWeb's Marshall Kirkpatrick runs through the pros and cons of the
platform in this
blog post, covering everything from ease of use (good!) to
suspect, malleable terms of service (bad!).
The platform launch comes more than a year after LinkedIn
drummed up a lot of notice for the
platform
with partners Google, Amazon, Six Apart, WordPress, Box.net, Huddle, SlideShare
and TripIt.
But the platform remained closed to those select partners and a few others,
prompting
speculation that the platform was dead. LinkedIn proved everyone
wrong, continuing its spree of partnerships as the high-tech world speeds
toward 2010.
Prior to the platform launch, LinkedIn has
partnered with IBM to bring
LinkedIn profiles to Lotus,
Research In Motion to bring LinkedIn to BlackBerry smartphones,
and Twitter to let its users
tweet their status to Twitter and to their
LinkedIn connections.
Read more about the LinkedIn development platform on
TechMeme here.
Email
Print
