LinkedIn wants to be more than a glorified Rolodex - adds new sticky features

LinkedIn is commonly referred to as a social networking site aimed at professionals. The problem with that description is that, to put it bluntly, there ain't a lot of socializing going on at LinkedIn. Instead, the site might be best described as a glorified Rolodex in which business contact information is stored in a way that can be dynamically updated and subsequently aggregated so that each user's address book is always current, and users can get to see a snapshot of how they are connected to others.

While this core functionality is useful in itself, validated by LinkedIn's nearly 17 million members, I've long thought that the site's data was being seriously underutilized. For the most part, non-paying customers add all the value (through entering their contact data and making connections), while premium paying customers (recruiters) get most of the benefit, and LinkedIn profits. However, the "Answers" feature, which enables users to submit and answer questions limited to people within their own network or the wider LinkedIn community, shows how much more value can be extracted from the LinkedIn network to the benefit of all users. Additionally, if LinkedIn can persuade its users to spend more time on the site then it can move further away from a premium membership model, to one that relies more on advertising revenue driven by page views.

Yesterday LinkedIn made a number of announcements (and re-announcements) that signal it's finally moving in this direction -- with new or planned features designed to extract more value out of its network data and entice users to spend much more time on the site.

• Industry news. LinkedIn now has a mini news aggregator, which attempts to display "the most relevant news articles about your company, your industry, and your competitors." When I logged in today, I was presented with news deemed relevant to ZDNet employees, the top story being a blog post about the launch of a new BBC blog.
• Modules. LinkedIn wants to evolve into "your professional dashboard where you can view the most important information you need as a professional". To support this aim, drag 'n' drop modules are available so that you can customize the applications that appear on your dashboard. Once LinkedIn releases its API for third-party developers then expect to see more modules become available.
• Network updates. The network updates section is similar to Facebook's mini news feed and displays LinkedIn updates relevant to your network e.g. person A added X number of new connections.
• APIs and more APIs. I've lost count how many times LinkedIn have announced this, but more details on the company's third-party developer program were revealed (though still with some gaping holes). Third-parties will be able to leverage LinkedIn data and functionality (with users permission) in both external and internal (LinkedIn hosted) applications. What isn't clear is whether third-party developers and their applications will need to be approved first, as was previously reported.