• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 13, 2007

LinkedIn, a social network targeting business professionals, is living up to its name. It's opening its "back end" to Web publishers that want to bring the network's functions to their sites. The first publisher to get the LinkedIn invitation, BusinessWeek, wants to use its networking function to make BW's Web site a place where business types can connect and maybe even make deals--in other words, a place to do business, rather than just read about it.

In one feature, LinkedIn will create links in the text of BusinessWeek editorial content for the proper names of businesses and people. By mousing over the links, the reader can determine how they are connected to the individual or entity in question, including how many of their own contacts are connected.

As part of the strategy, LinkedIn has created a new platform called Intelligent Applications that allows software developers to create links between LinkedIn and their own Web sites. LinkedIn has also embarked on a partnership with Google and MySpace with the long-term goal of creating standard software tools that will allow all social networks to seamlessly share content.

The BusinessWeek deal also benefits LinkedIn, leveraging the pub's popularity to spread awareness of LinkedIn to its substantial online audience. While smaller than competitors like Facebook and the gargantuan MySpace, LinkedIn has been growing at a rapid clip. Five million new members have joined in the fourth quarter of 2007 alone, according to the company.

Over the last year, BusinessWeek has aggressively pursued an interactive Web strategy relying on user-generated and professional content to create comprehensive "guides" to the business world. In May, the publication announced it is partnering with Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, to launch a Company Insight Center hosted on the magazine's Web site. The new online content area will triple the size of the BusinessWeek site. Information and analysis will cover companies, industries, markets and leaders.