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LinkedIn has launched another new feature, adding profiles of 160,000 companies to the professional networking site.

Professional social network LinkedIn has launched a series of changes to its homepage and added a new system of navigation.

Professional social network LinkedIn has launched a developer platform as well as a redesign of its website.

As previously outlined by CEO Dan Nye, the new "Intelligent Application" platform will not be as open as that of rival Facebook, and will be limited to ‘business productivity applications’.

LinkedIn will open up to application developers but in a much more limited way than its rival Facebook, according to CEO Dan Nye.

The business-focused social network announced plans to create an open platform for developers earlier this year, but Nye said LinkedIn wanted to avoid some of the more frivolous applications that have been created through Facebook's API.

Users of LinkedIn can now add photos to their profile pages, while users of German business network Xing will be able to add more personal and professional information to their profiles.

LinkedIn has resisted this move for some time as the lack of photos has set the site apart from other social networks, but has decided to give in to user requests.

Business social network Xing's membership reached 4m at the beginning of September, helped by its acquisition earlier this year of two Spanish networks.

Xing has posted some pretty impressive user growth figures recently, announcing in March that its membership had grown by 149% to 2m at the end of 2006.

Yahoo! is reportedly testing a new professional social networking service that connects students with prospective employers.

Called Yahoo! Kickstart but still merely a concept, the site focuses around users’ CVs in the style of LinkedIn. It also offers companies the opportunity to create groups that students can join.

Business social network LinkedIn has seen a sharp rise in visits over the past 12 months, with traffic increasing by 323% since August of last year.

Hitwise's LeeAnn Prescott reports that LinkedIn's market share of US visits was up by 17% in the past four weeks.

Business network LinkedIn is reportedly gearing up for a possible IPO that would make it one of the first social networks to go public.

Reuters reports that the move could happen as early as next year, thanks to the company's rapid growth - its membership has doubled to almost 12m in the past nine months.

Business network LinkedIn is reportedly planning to open its platform to developers over the next nine months.

LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman told Dan Farber that he wants to create a way for users who spend time on Facebook to get LinkedIn notifications.