It’s been an extremely busy year at LinkedIn, marked by a continual stream of announcements (product and otherwise) that made it on to our blog (Subscribe to the LinkedIn Blog). We believe a great way to cap off the year would be to pick the 10 most popular blog posts, which gives you a fair sense for the milestones we’ve covered in the past 12 months.

Here are the top 10 LinkedIn stories of 2008!

1. Announcing LinkedIn Mobile (includes an iPhone version) by Brandon Duncan

The growth in the Mobile Social Networking space this year coupled with the enormous interest in the iPhone may have contributed to the popularity of our LinkedIn Mobile post that Brandon Duncan wrote in February of this year. The post included a video by Jerry Luk demoing LinkedIn’s mobile app.

Today, I’d like to announce LinkedIn mobile for any Web enabled wireless phones that use the wireless application protocol (WAP). What that allows you to do is access LinkedIn from any mobile device ranging from your Blackberry to iPhone.

Read entire post here.

2. Now companies too have profiles on LinkedIn by Maisy Samuelson

In March of this year, we launched the ability for companies to have profiles on LinkedIn. Maisy wrote a blog post around that, with an accompanying 3 minute demo of the product feature.

Starting now, you’ll be able to see over 160,000 profiles of companies on LinkedIn, ranging from Fortune 500 companies (e.g. eBay) to philanthropic organizations (e.g. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) as well as LinkedIn’s own Company Profile page.  Company Profiles on LinkedIn is a succinct overview of a company’s industry data in combination with LinkedIn data along certain key metrics.

Read entire post here.

3. Guess who’s viewed your profile by Steven Stegman

“Who’s viewed my Profile” along with “People You May Know” (see #5 below) are two of the most commented feature posts on our blog. This post was an introduction to the “who’s viewed my profile” feature that can be accessed here.

Maybe you’ve wondered in the past who’s been viewing your profile. If so, you’re not alone — it’s been one of our most common feature requests. I’m very happy to announce that we launched a new feature that’ll both tell you how many people have viewed your profile in the past week as well as reveal some interesting characteristics about them.

Read entire post here.

4. LinkedIn’s new redesigned homepage with Status by Elliot Shmukler

This was the first of a series of posts blogged by Elliot on the homepage features. This post, published in February, hints at the LinkedIn homepage redesign that was being rolled out to millions of our users. It also led to the infamous blooper reel from Elliot.

On many past occasions I’ve blogged about incremental changes being made to the LinkedIn homepage design, so I’m really glad to announce the complete redesign of the LinkedIn homepage and am going to to walk you through some of those changes in a demo that you can find below.

Read entire post here.

5. Learn more about “People You May Know” by Jonathan Goldman

As I mentioned above, yet another of those “Aha” inspiring features on LinkedIn. Jonathan walks us through the three steps of using the feature – Find, Fine-tune and See more.

We’ve recently enhanced “People you may know” by expanding it to more users and providing a means for you to give us feedback about the quality of the recommendations. This feature has been around for almost a year and the goal is to suggest people you may want to connect to.

Read entire post here.

6. Announcing Applications on LinkedIn by Reid Hoffman

The most linked to post this entire year received trackbacks from every major tech outlet from Business Week to TechCrunch. The post also featured a video with intro demos from all of our application partners.

This initial roll out features productivity applications that range from gathering information that professionals around you are generating to enhancing your abilities to collaborate and communicate more effectively. You’ll be able to work much more closely with your contacts on LinkedIn with tools such as file sharing, project management, business trips and many more.

Read entire post here.

7. CNBC gets LinkedIn by Dan Nye

Dan wrote a post announcing the launch of LinkedIn’s collaboration with CNBC  and its three broad implications for our 33 million users. This post was also accompanied by a question that Dan asked on LinkedIn Answers.

Today, I’d like to announce the start of our collaboration with one of the most recognized leaders in global business news – CNBC! This collaboration includes CNBC integrating LinkedIn’s community and networking functionality into CNBC.com, enabling users to share and discuss news with their professional networks.

Read entire post here.

8. Bain Capital Ventures joins the LinkedIn team by Dan Nye

In June of this year, Dan announced the addition of Bain Capital ventures to our existing round of investors. The post also featured a quick 5 minute video from our investors on the partnership, which included further details.

Today I am happy to announce that LinkedIn has raised additional funding from our original investors and added another world-class investor to our team. Bain Capital Ventures joins our existing group of investors – Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, and Bessemer Ventures – and leads this round of investment at a total of $53 million.

Read entire post here.

9. Announcing LinkedIn’s new Search platform by Esteban Kozak

The most recent post on our Top 10 list, features our new search platform announcement from November of this year. Esteban walks us through the various features both in the post as well walking us through the features in a video demo.

The new search platform at LinkedIn is redefining the way professionals go about finding talent, business partners, customers or a former colleague. Here is a video that summarizes some of the key features in the new search experience, followed by key elements of the new functionality.

Read entire post here.

10. Announcing LinkedIn Searchable Groups directory by Ben Guthrie

LinkedIn Groups has grown tremendously this past year. The Searchable Groups directory kicked off a slew of critical enhancements to the Groups functionality on LinkedIn. No wonder, it found it’s place on our Top 10 list for the year.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of LinkedIn’s Groups Directory on Friday, July 11! With over 90,000 groups on LinkedIn, it was about time to make the complete list easily accessible by our members. The goal with this feature is to make it easier for people to find groups to join, and we think the directory goes a long way toward achieving that goal.

Read entire post here.

Stay tuned to the LinkedIn blog as we continue to bring you the latest in professional networking, product announcements, and user success stories. Feel free to leave us a comment or two, any feedback or suggestion in making this content more accessible to you. And, last but not the least, Happy Holidays! See you in the New Year!

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One of our key focus areas on the blog this past year has been to share with you how different professionals use LinkedIn to advance their career. Here are five videos we picked from a slew of LinkedIn user success stories we featured this year. Feel free to leave a comment on how you’ve used LinkedIn this past year to advance your career:

1. How LinkedIn Referrals can help you find new business and talent

Sasha Strauss (Innovation Protocol), describes how he has leveraged his trusted referral network on LinkedIn to not only to hire every employee in his firm but also to find most of his valued clientele.

I do business with people that are pre-qualified, and the only way that they are pre-qualified is that they have a robust profile that showcases who is willing to support what they claim! It really is an authenticity protocol!

Edit your LinkedIn Profile now

2. How LinkedIn Answers can help you build client relationships

Steven Shimek (Ruder Finn), used LinkedIn to build client relationships in over 20 leads that led to business worth over a quarter of a million dollars! He uses LinkedIn as a litmus test to qualify leads for his business development practice and explains his philosophy of digital karma in the below video.

LinkedIn isn’t just about networking. It’s about your friends, clients, and associates being a resource to you. I like helping people because they’ve all helped me!

Ask or Answer questions from your network

3. How LinkedIn Jobs can help you find your dream job

Evan Gotlib (Travel Zoo) describes how LinkedIn helped him find a dream job that he wasn’t looking for! Evan started seeing the power of LinkedIn right after he hit 50 connections on LinkedIn and calls it the tipping point for him!

Using job search, I stumbled upon a dream job opening in the travel industry. This is the first job I proactively went after and it wouldn’t have happened without LinkedIn!

Find your dream job using your LinkedIn Network

4. How LinkedIn Search can help you find the right candidate for the right job

Lenny Bourdeau (Stephen James Assoc.) faced the same challenge that recruiters and executives face these days, a dearth of talent with specific skill sets that they are looking for. Lenny was looking for somebody with a specific skill set in “revenue recognition”. His Search yielded three candidates whom he contacted via InMail and soon one of them was hired yielding a placement fee of $20K!

This person wasn’t on the job boards. So LinkedIn tremendously increased my candidate pool within that niche segment that I was specifically looking for!

Try LinkedIn’s new Advanced People Search

5. How LinkedIn Groups can help corporations can find unique value

Mark Kvamme (Sequoia Capital), describes his LinkedIn Aha moment when he was able to reach out to Ross Levinsohn (Velocity Interactive Group) through a trusted referral from Marc Andreessen (Ning). Watch more in the short video below.

I can really see how corporations and individuals can get some unique value from LinkedIn that they could not get in any other place.

Manage your Groups on LinkedIn

Stay tuned as we bring you many more examples of how professionals utilize LinkedIn and leverage the power of their professional network. If you have a LinkedIn success story you’d like to share with us, please leave a comment.

It’s been just a couple of months since we announced the launch of our application platform on Open Social and we felt it’d be a great way to wrap up the year with a list of some of the most popular apps on LinkedIn. A description of each app is followed by a quick demo from creators of the application. Have a favorite app that’s not in the list below? Leave a comment.

1. LinkedIn Company Buzz (Install app)

Want to track what your customers and users are saying about your company? Every second, a wide swath of your user base are sending out messages about your company through blogs, twitter, and across the internet. Company Buzz taps into this information for you, to find the relevant trends and comments about your company.

Company Buzz demo by Jamie Templeton

2. Slideshare (Install app)

The SlideShare application allows you to not only view the presentations of all your connections, but also helps you identify experts for certain industries and topics. Most importantly it allows you to reinforce your professional reputation and brand by embedding SlideShare presentations in your LinkedIn profile to feature your portfolio and work.

Slideshare demo by Rashmi Sinha

3. Reading List by Amazon (Install app)

The perfect LinkedIn app for the holiday season – Amazon’s Reading List application allows you to discover what people in your network and industry are reading. Start by adding the books that are relevant to you– those that you’re planning to, are currently, or have already read. Likewise you can then discover the latest books that your network and peers in your industry are reading.

Reading List demo by Ian McAllister

4. My Travel by Tripit (Install app)

My travel allows outbound professionals on LinkedIn to let their trusted colleagues know when they will be in the same city. The My Travel application allows you to easily meet up at the next industry event or re-connect with old friends. Start off the new year by reconnecting with that old colleague of yours, at next year’s first conference you’ll be attending.

My Travel demo by Will Aldrich

5. Google Presentations (Install app)

Yet another effective way to represent your professional brand on LinkedIn. Add a presentation to your LinkedIn profile to showcase a recent talk or presentation, display a visual portfolio of your professional accomplishments, or introduce yourself to recruiters and professional contacts viewing your profile. It’s easy to get started. Upload a Powerpoint file or use Google’s free online application to create your presentation, then post it to your profile for others to view.

Google Presentations demo by Sissie Hsiao

Check out the rest of the apps here. Quick tip: An easy way for you to access the apps that you’ve installed on LinkedIn is through your homepage sidebar between the “Inbox” and “Add your connections” tab. Check it out now.

LinkedIn has grown by leaps and bounds this past year and currently we are adding professionals to our site at the rate of one user per second.

Behind the scenes, there are several  dedicated teams of highly skilled people with (an unusually high tolerance for sleep deprivation), and a varied array of skills in areas such as capacity planning, network and server architecture, and web technology, and these teams are collectively known as the Linkedin Operations organization. All of these skills are continually focused on ensuring that the combination of hardware, software and data stored in our Data Center follows just the right ‘playbook’ to ensure that we offer you, a world class user experience. The primary goal for the LinkedIn Operations organization is for our site and partner applications to be available 24/7.

I am sure that LinkedIn’s operations team from our earlier days look back fondly on the time when our production infrastructure only needed to support the ‘tiny’ number of 2 million or even a paltry 5 million users. Fast forward to 2008, and with over 32 million users and a fast growing product portfolio, imagine the volume of hardware, software and data involved. It was time to expand our Data Center footprint so we can continue to offer our millions of users, a rock-solid and reliable service.

During a multi-month planning effort involving a large and cross functional team, plans were drawn up, revised, and re-revised. Project team members, in addition to their existing responsibilities, rose up to the challenge of architecting and implementing a world class physical infrastructure, on which we could deploy our applications and data. On December 6, 2008 that work culminated in LinkedIn’s latest addition to our portfolio of Data Centers going live to serve our customers’ Internet traffic, and because of that we are now better positioned than ever for the tremendous growth that lies ahead in the New Year!

Most job seekers on LinkedIn, probably have their favorite tips and tricks that help them land their dream job – whether it be re-entering the workforce, making a career 180 heading into the new year or even if someone has just been laid off and looking for a new position. Here’s a comprehensive list of 10 steps one should take on LinkedIn while job hunting:

1. Begin your hunt early.

Give yourself at least six months before your desired start date. Take time to review your goals and decide on a feasible plan of action. If your new career requires additional education, then begin even earlier.

2. Revamp your professional toolbox.

Take a look at job descriptions you’re interested in and make a checklist of the skills and talents they require. If you have weak spots you may want to consider taking a class at your local community college. If you don’t have time to attend a seminar or class (or if money is an issue) another option is to browse and/or ask questions on LinkedIn Answers so you can get the info you need. Use Advanced Answers Search to find questions associated with specific keywords like, “marketing” or “venture capital.”

3. Be a news hound.

Read trade publications online and review the changes that are occurring in your industry. Staying on top of current trends and newsworthy events can often make or break an interview. Join LinkedIn Groups that are associated with both your old/previous profession as well as the new industry that you’re looking to join. See what news articles people in those groups are reading by clicking on the news tab in the group and submit links to articles that you’ve read to start conversations/network with others in the group.

4. Give your resume and your LinkedIn Profile a face lift.

Make sure that both your resume and profile reflect the changing times. Eliminate any terms that may have become obsolete. Use power keywords, words of action and words that show accomplishment and achievement – as opposed to words that merely describe what your previous role was. Also, if you’re currently unemployed list your current position as “open to opportunities.” Edit your LinkedIn Profile.

5. Update your Status

If you just recently lost your job, make sure you update your status field in your profile so your network know that you’re looking for a job. It’s a quick and easy way to let folks you’re connected to know that you could use their help. David Stevens, one of our users, updated his status upon being laid off. Within seven business days someone in his network knew of an open position, which Dave landed shortly thereafter.

6. Do your homework.

Sign on to LinkedIn and do a search for people that already have your dream job title. What positions did they hold beforehand? How long were they in their previous role? Information like this can be a valuable bargaining chip when it comes time to negotiate your salary. Also do search for your desired employer’s LinkedIn Company Profile. Company Profiles show career paths for people before/after they joined a company, recent promotions/changes, most popular profiles and other stats that will help you understand any potential employer (and its competitors) better.

7. Rekindle relationships/build your network before you need it.

Use LinkedIn to do a search for people that live in your hometown and work in your desired industry. Offer to take them to lunch near their office and learn more about the industry, their position, likes/dislikes and other firms in the area. New acquaintances help you expand your network giving you a broader reach into the job market. Use the networks of your friends and family since they are your best advocates.

8. Confidence counts.

Before your interview, check and see if the person who’s interviewing you is on LinkedIn. If they are, check for common acquaintances. Having a mutual friend or old co-worker is a great icebreaker and an awesome way to get your foot in the door. It’s also worth taking a look at the schools they’ve attended and what cities they’ve lived in since that may be another commonality. And, never underestimate the power that your favorite pair of shoes or a good power suit can wield.

9. Check your surroundings for other resources.

A number of communities offer resources for people returning to the workforce. If you think you may be lacking marketable skills, haven’t been working for five years or more or have never held a paying job, check with your state’s department of labor office. The Internet also offers a plethora of blogs, columns and publications that are geared toward helping you jump start your career so do a search for those as well.

10. Pay it forward – recommend an old friend or a colleague

And, finally, your LinkedIn profile is like a living, breathing resume; so ask friends and old co-workers to leave recommendations for you on your profile. That way potential employers can see them. Make sure that you ask references to comment on specific traits that highlight what a perfect fit you are for your new career and remember to thank them afterward.

If you aren’t looking for a job, but want to help a friend or colleague that lost their job leave a recommendation for them on their LinkedIn Profile. Recommendations spread virally, so if you leave Joe a recommendation on his profile all 65 of his connections will see a network update when they sign in showing that you just recommended his work. Your connections will also receive a network update saying that you just recommended Joe too so it’s a fast and effective way to let both of your networks know that this person is a hard worker and great person to work with.

* Feel free to share your favorite LinkedIn Tip on job hunting in the comments section

A couple of months ago, I blogged about enhancements to LinkedIn’s address book that allow you to add address book information, ranging from phone numbers to private notes. Now you can add, view and edit that information right on your connections’ profiles.

You can find the widget right next to the “How you’re connected to me” module on the right sidebar. The information you’ll find on the profile include primary contact info (email and phone) as well as your private notes, which you can now edit directly on the Profile.

Of course, we also allow you to bring up your full address book  information by clicking “View/Edit Contact Info”.

Stay tuned for more enhancements to your LinkedIn Address Book. Feel free to leave your feedback on this thread.

Our LinkedIn success stories have illuminated previously why it’s important to find the right person at a company. For Jeff Ragovin, doing just that has netted his company “over two to three million dollars”.

“I look at my network on LinkedIn,” Jeff tells us, “And I look at that as a gold mine.” As the VP of Sales and Business Development at Buddy Media, Jeff brings in marquis clients like Anheuser-Busch, Microsoft and New Balance by reaching out to the right person with a valuable proposal. Jeff says they’re more inclined to reply when approached via LinkedIn, because “they already have the opportunity to look you up … and maybe even see in your network where you have 14 recommendations. So there’s trust.” Perhaps that trust is why Jeff likes to keep his network “large but lean”.

“It’s not a numbers game,” Jeff says. “It’s not about how many people can I have in my network. With LinkedIn, it’s about how many qualified people that are valuable to me.” Jeff’s track record suggests that success is found in quality, rather than quantity. Though as quantities go, $2-3 million is nothing to sniff at.

LinkedIn User Snapshot

Who: Jeff Ragovin, VP, Sales and Business Development, Buddy Media (New York, NY)

How: Jeff has brought in “millions of dollars” through LinkedIn by finding the right person at a company to offer a valuable proposal to.

LinkedIn Tip from Jeff

Come recommended and reach out to the right person at the right company:

• Update your professional summary and request recommendations from your LinkedIn contacts who know what you do best
• Search for the right person to connect with by job title, company, location or keyword
• Review profiles to see if they’re a fit for your proposal and request an introduction through a common connection, or send an InMail directly to that person

Check out the Learning Center to learn more about using LinkedIn

Search is an important aspect of the LinkedIn experience and a big part of many professional’s everyday jobs. We recently launched a more streamlined design for LinkedIn Search, with the goal of helping our users, often on the run or at work, to find who they’re looking for both quickly and effectively.

While Esteban’s post from last week focused on the product upgrades within LinkedIn search, I’d like to walk you through the process of designing an improved user experience for Search.

Listening to the LinkedIn community
Prior to launch, we conducted a rigorous research and design process in order to identify customer pain points and potential opportunities for improvement. We gathered feedback from a variety of sources and at different touch points, ranging from site feedback to analyzing site data to see what users were searching for on LinkedIn.

Most importantly, we talked to different types of our users: both in individual think-aloud studies and in group forums, continually iterating based on their feedback. Given below are some of the key design improvements that resulted from those conversations:

1. Simpler and more flexible layout
Our query analysis told us that our users were typically searching by name for someone they know. Therefore, we’ve simplified our default People Search view to make it easy to skim names and pictures and see key supporting information to confirm the right selection. The blue highlights on mouse-over group the information about a person and give quick access to the available actions.

We know that there are times when you’d like to see more detailed information, so it’s now easy to switch to an expanded view, or even design a custom layout, directly from the top of the search results page. You can choose to see more, less, or different information for each result, and your view selection will be remembered the next time you visit.

2. More efficient search results
With over 32 million professionals to search through, we wanted to make it very convenient to narrow it down to the person(s) you’re looking for, or to edit your existing search without extra pages or clicks. We have surfaced the advanced search fields and sort options directly from the page and, like the results views, your sorts will be remembered next time you run a search.

Other new efficiency tools, which you can learn about in Esteban’s blog post, include type ahead short cuts to the profiles of your connections, spell check for names, saved searches, and saved search email updates.

3. More enjoyable experience
Last, but not least, we did hope to make the act of finding your peers and colleagues on LinkedIn more delightful, without compromising on functionality, simplicity, and ease of use. For example, we created a new field called “In Common”. Here we show each of the connections and groups you share with that person, in the hopes of further inspiring that “ah ha” moment, and helping each user better understand how connected we all are on LinkedIn.

As part of the Interaction Design team, our goal is to address your needs and this is a first step in optimizing your search experience on LinkedIn.

Try LinkedIn’s improved People Search now

Please send us your feedback and suggestions so we can incorporate them into future design changes to the site!