A Powerful Business Networking Web Site

Networking is a problem for most working professionals. Some of us just don't have much time to network (I belong to this category). Yet for others, networking is as pleasant an exercise as having a root canal at the dentist.

That's why LinkedIn is such a great idea and I suspect it may work for at least some of us. It is a website where your register specifically for networking possibilities.

After your register at www.linkedin.com you are automatically matched by 10 possible networking buddies. But this is not the most exciting part of this service since the initial contacts are pulled from your own Outlook address book. Nothing to write home about there. (Yet, I have to admit I was surprised to discover that one the suggested "networking partners" pulled from my own address book was already a LinkedIn member.)

The membership list is displayed alphabetically by last name and a cursory look reveals the depth of the membership roster.

The most innovative feature of this service is that it puts you in touch with your old classmates.

You enter the school(s) from which you have graduated (by country, state, name, years of attendance) and LinkedIn automatically pulls in all your old classmates who are also LinkedIn members, by year of graduation which you can select from a drop-down list.

And the list of schools is truly global and not only limited to the United States. Even if you went to school in Congo or an island in the Pacific, the chances are LinkedIn covers it.

I have already sent a message to an old school mate of mine whom I had not talked to for over 20 years now. It would be interesting to see if he will reply.

Web technology in the service of business. LinkedIn is a very interesting web site indeed.