VENTURE BEAT BLOG — Oct 16 — LinkedIn, the social networking site for business
professionals, has introduced a feature to let people find "recommended" service
providers. This move takes LinkedIn, the Sequoia Capital-backed Palo Alto
start-up, beyond its insular focus on the business networking set, and brings it
closer to a Yellow Pages model — making it much more interesting. If you are
searching for an attorney, for example, you can click on the "services" tab at
LinkedIn, then select "attorney" and see if anyone in your network as
recommended an attorney in the field you’re looking for. FULL ARTICLE @ VENTURE BEAT
Mark Brooks: People are tired of advertising and are reaching out
for ‘friendly referrals.’ We’ll see more referral systems meshed into social
networks. Trust follows the channels of social networks. Buy.com made an attempt in
2004 with yub.com but
couldn’t get viral traction. Connectors tend not to want to connect their
friends to social networking sites that have clear and apparent commercial
agendas.
