LinkedIn: Coming Soon to an Inbox near you!

Here at LinkedIn, we are always looking for ways to make the world's professionals more effective through the use of their network. Today, I'm happy to announce the first of several upcoming product features being built through a partnership with IBM’s Lotus, which extends the availability of LinkedIn functionality to Lotus Notes.

Here are three key LinkedIn features that 140 million Lotus Notes users can look forward to:

1. Network Updates

Keep track of your broader professional network through an integrated stream of LinkedIn Network Updates.

LinkedIn Network Updates in Lotus

By using Network Updates to keep track of what projects are being worked on, what questions are being asked, and what connections are being made in one’s professional network, you can stay more engaged and up-to-date in your professional life. The LinkedIn Lotus Notes integration makes viewing your Network Updates a seamless part of your daily activities, by placing them within the inbox that you already use every day.

2. People Search

Another feature to supercharge your Inbox is the ability to use LinkedIn’s People Search with one-click:

linkedin-notes-search-v3

Easily look up that new contact you’ve just made or the attendees of an upcoming meeting. You can even find contacts at a given company or with a given skill, just as you would on the LinkedIn site. So if you need that expert in mobile technology, open source, or Ruby on Rails, just put the right keywords into the search box to see who in your professional network can assist.

3. LinkedIn Profiles

Once you find who you need, you can also view their LinkedIn Professional Profile right within Notes:

linkedin-notes-profile-email-sender-v3

Lotus Notes will make profile look ups simple by hyper-linking names to a one-click LinkedIn search. Just click on an unfamiliar name in an e-mail and instantly view the associated LinkedIn profile. And when you do find that right contact, the ability to send them a message or connect with them on LinkedIn is always available.

Those familiar with the LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar may recognize similar functionality. However, by working with IBM directly on the Notes integration, we’ve been able to make it richer, more seamless, and more robust. These are just first steps in a broad partnership that we’re announcing today with IBM.

As we pursue our vision of bringing LinkedIn to inboxes everywhere, we plan to work with other partners to bring a similarly rich integration to your favorite email client.

We look forward to your thoughts on these and future directions in comments to this post.