LinkedIn Launches Professional Social News Site, LinkedIn Today

LinkedIn on Thursday launched a personalized social news aggregator called LinkedIn Today that filters shared stories from its users’ connections and industry affiliations.

The company held a press event at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters to show off the product and other recent launches, which include the professional social stream LinkedIn Signal and the network map visualizer InMaps. Deep Nishar, head of products at Linkedin, said they are part of an overall effort to understand “how does this network bring insights.”

LinkedIn Today is available today online and as a “News” tab update on the company’s iPhone app. It is based in large part on LinkedIn users’ shared links on Twitter, and the product was developed through an extension to the professional networking site’s existing partnership with Twitter.

The service includes 22 industries at launch, including Internet, pharmaceuticals and banking. Users see top recent stories in their network and their industries, as well a smattering of more random content from a partnership with StumbleUpon.

That industry focus makes LinkedIn Today one of the broader social news offerings out there. For instance, LinkedIn product manager Liz Walker said the company has five million members who identify themselves as working in the Internet industry.

The product, she said, combines “three social lenses on the news that we don’t think have ever been brought together in one place”: users’ networks, their industries, and all professionals.

LinkedIn Today was built with technology and employees brought in through the company’s acquisition of mSpoke last summer, Nishar said.

LinkedIn is also syndicating Today’s industry tabs as Twitter feeds. So if you want to keep up with the most-shared stories by people in banking, for instance, you could follow this account.