Good point about characterizing LinkedIn !

Some of the remarks came up in the articale and comments.
@Sangeet: I gree about the arguments about social networking site in general, but not about tooStep and peerPower, they are moving in right direction, appraoch is right, they lack muscle no doubt. Lets see. I am of the view they can have market too, as LI.
@Arvind:Nopes, I dont see that as simple rejig, Arvind. And it cant be manula either, if you are thinking its too easy.
@Pravin/Swaroop: Mixing the two concepts, a big NO!

I think recruitment is the low hanging fruit for LinkedIn – they are trying to monetize but they realise that in a market like India LinkedIn will be perceived to be too expensive (they wouldnt have allowed groups with job functionality otherwise). Its likely thatthat LinkedIn will be looking more at marketing and lead generation in a B2B environment. We should see more interesting apps / mashups with the API thats been opened up by them.

Just wanted to mention that LinkedIn has the mindshare now, and it shows *only* the professional side of the person. Mixing the purposes of LinkedIn and Facebook is a _bad_ idea and won’t fly.

P.S. Fun fact for the day: Did you know about http://www.itfundas.com (by Vivek Paul of Wipro fame)

for now, I would like to see collaboration Saas on LI where you already have a community that would like to collaborate on business

The best guys are’nt the ones looking for a change of job, but network for professional reasons-for keeping themselves abreast and competitive!! The challenge for any employer, therefore, is to engage and influence a community of talent,and keep a potential pipeline at arm’s length!

Positioning it as a “professional network of trusted contacts” Linkedin has brought in an aura of credibility with most people putting up facts closest to reality. And thats where it scores much more than Naukri and Monster -which really haven’t built any system to validate/verify the claims made in the resumes!!

It would be interesting to note if companies can build applications/games and reasons to improve brand equity -and tickle the subconcious mind of a professional even as she/he leisurely enjoys Farmville…it could give LI a good run for the money!

Culturally too-a lot of us have inhibitions admitting that we could be open for a change!!

For that matter, FB can do a lot of things but would it really work the way LinkedIn has? For one, the people i connect with on FB are not necessarily the ones i want on LinkedIn. A schoolfriend who is currently an airhostess is not someone who may benefit me professionally though I would still have her on FB. More importantly, As a consumer, the persona i have on FB may differ vastly from what I have on LI. I could be the CEO of a company with a very serious professional exterior on LI and at the same time be doing absolutely random stuff on FB. Somehow, professional netowrking wouldn’t be quite the same thing on a generalpurpose network.

It is not a question of whether FB can or cannot implement it.It’s really a question of whehter any such implementation will work. Yahoo also can (and does) do a lot of stuff with the wealth of APIs they have and most of them fail miserably.

The largely young and fun-loving junta of today would ultimately be a working professional of tomorrow too and the juggernauts can make use of it. The risk remains.