LinkedIn today released full access for developers to their API. This is a set of tools that allows applications to integrate with LinkedIn data and functions, such as profiles, messages and search results. Up to now, LinkedIn has been very protective of their data, allowing access only to a very few, carefully vetted 3rd parties. This is a marked difference to other networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter who owe a lot of their success to open APIs and "application" environments.
There will now be a rush of both existing applications offering new/enhanced features through use of the API, and innovative and creative new
"mashup" applications finding new ways of integrating the LinkedIn data and features with other online services.
Many of these will be coming very soon. I noted that TweetDeck (a tool for monitoring and controlling all your social media data and connections from one place) was in an early beta test of the APIs and will be announcing full support in their next version. We'll have to wait and see exactly where the recruitment industry will take this, but as very avid users of LinkedIn's networking tools and "living online CV" data, I expect a very large number of integrations in the near future. At 4MAT, we're well underway working on leveraging these tools to make our clients' lives that much easier as well.
See
LinkedIn's blog post for more details or read
technical details.
