Open: LinkedIn to open up. MySpace next? June 26, 2007
Posted by Andy Roberts in : General , trackbackSome news, analysis and links from Antony Mayfield about Facebook and LinkedIn.
Open (finds, minds, conversations)…: LinkedIn follows Facebook into the open: MySpace next?
LinkedIn is to open up: a pretty essential move to ensure its continuing relevance in a world where Facebook is hoovering up professionals to its social network.
According to Dan Farber at ZDNet, LinkedIn’s founder told him:
…over next 9 months LinkedIn [will] deliver APIs for developers, ostensibly to make it more of platform like Facebook, and create a way for users who spend more time socially in Facebook to get LinkedIn notifications
Sooner the better in my opinion. Although LinkedIn has added new functionality it has never been more than a live contacts database for me.
It’s good to see Linkedin thinking about defining itself in relation to Facebook, this may add to the usefulness of both services.
As John Naughton’s article in yesterday’s Observer neatly illustrates, open platforms rather than controlled spaces look like the smart bet when it comes to social networks.
Open platforms rather than controlled spaces sounds good to me. .
That’s the goal to aim for, once you already have an established user base and an agile development team.
The link to the Observer provides a comparison of Facebook with MySpace:
But it isn’t just the age dimension that marks out Facebook from MySpace. An intriguing contrast in strategic vision is also becoming apparent. Murdoch bought MySpace because it had become one of the most visited sites on the web. The challenge for the Murdoch team was how to ‘monetise’ those eyeballs. Their solution was a traditional combination of advertising and control. (It also helped that Google paid $900m for the privilege of providing search facilities on the site.) The advertising bit is self-explanatory; the control freakery is exemplified by the Murdoch philosophy of not allowing other people to make money on his platform. In that sense, MySpace is really Rupert’s Space.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
Who wants to pay to contact people on linkedin? I know lots of folks building profiles on a site called congoo.com because you can contact others members free. I also prefer myspace to facebook.