What do you do if you're billed as a business professional's Facebook, and a substantial portion of your more than 19 million members are jet-setting business types with fancy mobile phones and jobs that lend themselves to schmoozing? You build a mobile Web site so they can invite contacts as they meet them or identify in real life those they already have.
That was the impetus behind LinkedIn's mobile beta. (That and the fact that all the other social networks have mobile Web sites, too.) It's a good move for the social network, whose CEO, Dan Nye, said in a statement that "many of these professionals are on the move, attending conferences, sales meetings, and client events. Making LinkedIn available on mobile devices responds to both these business realities and will be great for our users."
LinkedIn Mobile's beta WAP on a BlackBerry.
That may be true in the future, but LinkedIn's multilanguage beta WAP site, accessible from phones by visiting m.linkedin.com, has a long development road ahead if it's to be as useful to members as the main Web service. The stripped-down Web site offers a search bar, and the ability to view contacts, updates, and your own profile. You can invite other members from your phone, and change language settings, or offer device-specific feedback; you can also forward job postings to a friend. It won't be until future releases that you'll be able to answer a question, update your profile, accept or decline invitations, or reply to a job posting.
LinkedIn Mobile looks nice enough on the iPhone, for which it was optimized, but professionals with BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Palm devices will look forward to downloadable applications that will be able to integrate with phone's contact list and camera.
Engineering director Brandon Duncan confirmed that these versions are under consideration, and LinkedIn will decide which platforms they'll develop for based on user and market demands. In the meantime, LinkedIn members on the move can check their accounts or pick out contacts in a crowded room with a quick photo appraisal by visiting LinkedIn from their phones.
Here's a little something to chew on along with your Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie. TechCrunch UK is reporting an "unconfirmed rumour" via a "well-placed" and "reliable" source that the LinkedIn social network is in talks with News Corp. about a possible buy out in January 2008.
That, of course, would put both LinkedIn--considered a sort-of MySpace for the grown-up business set--and MySpace itself under Rupert Murdoch's same corporate entity.
LinkedIn, an increasingly competitive player in the social media market, recently started allowing its members to upload a photograph to accompany their profiles and--a la Facebook--opened up an application programming interface to allow third-party developers to contribute to the site.
We'll take a closer look at the News Corp./LinkedIn-acquisition rumor post-Turkey Day.
Mash, Yahoo's way of quietly saying farewell to Yahoo 360, is at first glance a somewhat uninspired attempt to catch up with Facebook. Even the name is boring--Mash. Don't mix it up, by the way, with Mosh, Nokia's mobile networking site (currently in beta) and Mashable, the social-networking blog. Mash (invite-only as of now) looks like a cross between Facebook, MySpace and Netvibes--and it also has a bit of wiki DNA: Anyone you grant permissions to can edit your profile or add modules they think are relevant to your profile. Besides that, nothing new.
To be fair, it may not be a super-innovative move to come up with another social-networking site, but if you were a Yahoo exec, wouldn't you do the same? As one of the burgeoning social networks may potentially emerge as the new Internet, and yes, maybe the new operating system, Yahoo simply can't afford to not jump on the bandwagon and not leverage the viral powers of its broad user base.
As a user though, I have mixed emotions. I have slowly built my LinkedIn network over the years (although all my European friends remain on Xing, formerly OpenBC), jumped on and off Friendster, and just made it onto Facebook, as a very late adopter, and now I should join yet another network? What are the benefits? Besides a few neat features, what makes Mash truly different than the leader of the pack? Can I at least import my Facebook buddy lists? Is there really a market for multiple social networks? Can you, my loyal friends, please stay with me and not emigrate again?
And yet, there is hope: Every new social network is a chance to learn from the mistakes you made on past sites (when your invitation-happiness compromised the quality of your network). It's a chance to reinvent yourself, relaunch your identity, and start a new life. So I guess I will give it a try.
If two months' worth of perpetual hype and hearsay about Facebook have given you social-networking fatigue, it might be time to chug an energy drink--looks like we will see another serious entry into the field on Monday.
Launched by contact and schedule management service Plaxo, this will apparently be a sort of midpoint between the strictly business LinkedIn and the still-full-of-frat-party-photos Facebook.
The rumors started, as they often do, with a single blog post from a well-read blogger. After attending the "Lunch 2.0" event at Facebook's offices last week, Robert Scoble started up a minifirestorm of speculation when he recounted a conversation he'd had there with John McCrea, Plaxo's vice president of marketing.
Apparently, this coming Monday, the address book and calendar synchronization hub will be making a move toward a more standard variety of social networking--aiming directly at Facebook. VentureBeat reports that this new network will be called "Pulse," and it has provided some screenshots.
A screenshot of Plaxo's Pulse, obtained by VentureBeat
(Credit: VentureBeat)I've e-mailed Plaxo representatives and will report back when I've heard more.
One of Facebook's biggest flaws, Scoble wrote, is that content on the site is completely closed off if you aren't a member. Plaxo will be attempting to address this through extensive privacy controls that include an "open" option. The real kicker is that you'll have the ability to group people into custom categories of friends; this is something that LiveJournal users have been able to do for years, but Facebook currently has no division other than "full profile" and "limited profile" displays. Plaxo's Pulse, from what we've been hearing, will be both open and controllable.
But do we really need a new social-networking site to correct the flaws of the ones that already exist?
Scoble doesn't think that Pulse will be a "Facebook killer," and I agree, but for different reasons. Even though the "grown-ups" have been signing on to Facebook since the launch of the developers' platform gave the company some street cred, it's still largely a time-waster.
Plaxo already has a reputation as an organization tool--do we really think that's going to appeal to the millions of Facebook users who have been installing iLike, Hot or Not, and--heaven forbid--(Fluff)Friends apps on their profiles?
LinkedIn might have reason to worry about this, but unless Pulse turns out to offer something really innovative that we haven't even dreamed up yet, Facebook doesn't. It may, however, give Facebook reason to look into offering more "friends groups" controls.
Sometimes, it pays not to be linked in. Ignorance is bliss.
Security researchers are reporting a public exploit has been designed that could take advantage of critical security flaws in the LinkedIn Internet Explorer Toolbar.
The vulnerabilities do not apply to the Linkedin.com Web site, only the LinkedIn IE toolbar.
Users of the LinkedIn social-networking site that have the IE toolbar installed on their computers could be at risk of a remote attack, should they visit a malicious Web site, according to a posting by VDA Labs' Jared DeMott and Justin Seitz, who discovered the flaws.
The security flaws stem from an error within the IEToolbar.IEContextMenu.1, when it handles the search method, noted security researcher Secunia, which listed the vulnerabilities "extremely critical" in its advisory.
The security flaws are found in LinkedIn version 3.0.2.1098, but other versions may also be affected, Secunia warns.
Users can try setting the kill-bit for the affected ActiveX control as one means to solve the problem.
A spokeswoman for LinkedIn says the social networking site takes public exploit seriously and the company is working on a solution. She notes there are currently no reports of malicious exploits.
UPDATED: Thursday, 2:18 p.m.
LinkedIn has issued a security patch for the LinkedIn Internet Explorer Toolbar. The patch was automatically pushed to users' systems.
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