

Ask HN: Any startups doing anything interesting with LinkedIn API? - shyamster

Don't see any startup activity even with 60M+ users on LinkedIn and an open API.  Am I missing something?
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aditya
The big problem with the LinkedIn API is that the ToS are pretty harrowing.

Who knows what they'll do to you if you succeed in using their (extremely
valuable) data set:
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linkedin_platform_pros_...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linkedin_platform_pros_and_cons.php)

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yesimahuman
Right, and you have to be logged in through OAuth to get anything out of the
API (As far as I can tell, please prove me wrong though), which really
diminishes the value you can get out of the platform as a third party.

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bjonathan
Hi, can you explain your PoV ? How OAuth diminishes the value ?

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yesimahuman
OAuth requires a user to be logged in, which is fine if that is the type of
service you are running. If you want to search LinkedIn like you might
twitter, you are out of luck if you want to do it through the API. And even if
you do have a service that OAuth fits, the TOS is scary enough to avoid it.

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tiffani
The fact that it _wasn't always so open_ (especially to the developer masses)
has probably steered a lot of people away from being interested.
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linkedin_hits_50_millio...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linkedin_hits_50_million_users_still_a_roach_motel.php)

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shyamster
but my guess is that developers are a forgiving lot and if there's a way to be
successful, they'd forgive and forget...no?

~~~
pplante
we're generally a fickle bunch.

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adammichaelc
There's some interesting things being done by 7 degrees, not with the LinkedIn
API, but in the same space. They have pulled in so much data that you can
practically find out how you're connected to anybody. They incorporate
LinkedIn in the sense that you have the option to give it your LinkedIn
credentials and it then scrapes your connections through it. I know exactly
how I'm connected to Bill Gates, for example (i.e. I know so-and-so, who knows
so-and-so, etc., who knows Bill Gates). <https://www.mypeoplemaps.com/>

