EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

Today I heard for the first time about this LINKEDIN stuff and it sounded quite interesting so I did a small review about what it is exactly about and how does it work.
This is what I found out:

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking . As for December 2007, its site traffic was 3.2 million visitors per month, up 485% from the end of 2006.
As of October 2008, it had more than 30 million registered users, spanning 150 industries.
In summer of 2008, LinkedIn launched LinkedIn DirectAds as a form of sponsored advertising.

The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

This list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:

• A contact network is built up consisting of their direct connections, the connections of each of their connections (termed second degree connections) and also the connections of second degree connections (termed third degree connections). This can be used to gain an introduction to someone you wish to know through a mutual, trusted contact.
• It can then be used to find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
• Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
• Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.