LinkedIn's Answer to Facebook's Open Graph
Professional social network LinkedIn has opened up access to a new developer platform today that should bring LinkedIn content, buttons, Twitter-esque “profile summaries” and more to websites throughout the Web. — The platform, though, isn't just for developers.
Context & Ripple Effects
LinkedIn has pursued developer access since its 2007 plan to open to developers and described the platform as open for business in 2009. The 2011 release broadens that effort into a web-facing integration layer for professional identity and content.
The expansion arrives as LinkedIn has passed 100 million members and filed for a public offering, making distribution beyond LinkedIn’s own site strategically significant.
First-order effects
- Developers and website operators can embed LinkedIn content, buttons and profile summaries, giving LinkedIn members professional touchpoints beyond LinkedIn’s own pages.
- LinkedIn gains more places to display and connect professional identity data while reducing the friction for third parties to integrate its service.
Second-order effects
- Sites that adopt the tools can make professional profiles and LinkedIn-linked actions part of their own experience, increasing their reliance on LinkedIn as an identity and content source.
- Facebook’s Open Graph is a clearer competitive reference point: LinkedIn is offering websites a specialized professional alternative rather than leaving social integrations to general-purpose networks.
Third-order effects
- If third-party adoption takes hold, professional identity can become an access layer distributed across the web, with value accruing to the network that controls the profile, connection and integration tools.
- The move points toward social networks competing not only for destination traffic but for developer integration and the external surfaces where users encounter their data.
The trend: Social networks are evolving from standalone destinations into developer platforms that distribute identity and interaction across third-party websites.