LinkedIn is a new social networking site which caters to business individuals as well as professionals. It combined the best of Twitter and Facebook to present a way of contacting colleagues as well as building your own professional profile and professional network in your field.

You can access certain communities for an individual skill and search for other professionals with those skills.

When you register for LinkedIn you register the same as you would for a social networking site. You enter minimal information like your name, your email address (which is then confirmed) and your country of residence. You can enter additional information such as company or alumni if you want. When you are done registering you can import a contact list from a different webmail service, or you can browse for people based on their name, their company, or their college. The biggest difference is that using this social networking site means that you do not look for after party photos or holiday family photos. You can only contact people for professional means instead of looking for your next hook up. This site lets you seek professionals within your personal contacts. if you are friends with someone you can look up a friend of your colleague who might be an expert in diesel motors or networks.

While LinkedIn was launched back in 2003, its popularity began to grow by 2008. It expounded upon the community aspect and created an area where employees can seek employers, and employers can seek employees. You can use it for social networking as well as an online CV database. if you are accustomed to using Microsoft Outlook, then the layout of LinkedIn will seem natural for you. It makes business owners feel at home with the contact list looking like a rolodex and updates available for specific features. sometimes the site might seem cluttered—much like Microsoft Windows—which can take away from the appeal.

The service is free and is funded through advertisements—as most social networking sites are today. You can, however, upgrade to a premium account service which lets you search specifically for CV’s of potential new hires. This is a useful service for companies looking for new employees.

LinkedIn is a great feature because it removes the hassle of using a business directory or searching through ads. You can find other features such as a visual map creation of your connections and how they are related, as well browsing for employees and CV’s which are suitable in a network which is professional looking, and you can integrate this application with other webmail contacts and Microsoft Outlook.