LinkedIn flexed it muscles today by shutting down API access to developers who were violating services.
This includes BranchOut, BeKnown, Visible.me, Daxtra, Mixtent and CRM-Gadget.
According to TechCrunch, BranchOut, a social networking app for Facebook, was planning to create a premium enterprise recruiting search tool that would charge fees to access LinkedIn’s content.
LinkedIn discovered BeKnown – which was only launched this past week, as a Facebook app by job board site Monster – was already using LinkedIn’s APIs to send messages promoting BeKnown.
If they were going for underhanded, it obviously didn’t work.
API (application programming interface) sets rules for software programs, to help them communicate with each other.
Obviously it doesn’t work when your fellow networks are plotting against you.
BranchOut issued a statement that said, “Changes to the LinkedIn API have little impact on the BranchOut experience, as it was only being used by a small fraction of our users. People should be allowed to share their data with the new services and contexts that provide the most utility.”
It will be interesting to see whether LinkedIn reinstates the APIs. According to the article, they are open to reconnecting if they are in compliance.
Given it has partnership deals with developers that can earn them some money, you would think the competitors will back off.
