ResourcePad Blog

The latest buzz surrounding the social networking universe is that LinkedIn, the professional social networking site, is creating an open application interface ala Facebook, allowing users to hook up and be hooked up to its local interface. One of their partners at the time of writing, is BusinessWeek.

Facebook, meanwhile, has shifted its previous ‘no opt’ policy for Beacon–it’s advertising gimmick of a platform–to an opt-in, where users will now be directed to a pop up box asking whether or not they can share the information with others in their network. What prompted such a reaction? MoveOn brought out a petition on the community, and in nine days amassed a collection of over 50,000 “signatures”. Users began to complain when surprise Christmas shopping wasn’t such a surprise anymore, after friends were alerted to what they were buying. Kinda takes the fun out of the whole thing, doesn’t it?

Though MoveOn hopes this will create a ripple effect in the industry, I highly doubt it. MySpace partnered with Google will in all likelihood create a revenue generating advertising campaign themselves, but unlike with Facebook’s Beacon, they have the massive conglomerate that is Google behind it. Chances are, they’ll find some loophole in there somewhere.

Meanwhile, though LinkedIn’s application interface is yet another example of how all social networking communities are jumping on the API bandwagon, if you think of the possibilities this could pose for the company, potentials are huge. However, if they were to link Facebook’s interface with their own, both from a usability and connectivity perspective, there are massive advantages. For one, while on Facebook, you can monitor your professional connections and possibly add those among your existing Facebook connections to LinkedIn. The only foreseeable disadvantage in this, is if one of your potential LinkedIn professional contacts, decided to take a trip through your Facebook profile and realize those party loving ways you’ve been careful to hide!

Technology’s moving at an alarming rate, people! Be careful what you wish for.

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