Linkedin Profile Scraping: April 2013

Friday 26 April 2013

LinkedIn Bundles a Personal Assistant Into New Contacts App

LinkedIn unveiled a new contacts application for Web and mobile users this week with the goal of helping members manage the relationships they build on the professional social network.

The company is billing LinkedIn Contacts as a digital personal assistant. It will pull information from user address books, calendars, emails and previous LinkedIn activity to create a single virtual Rolodex.

To simplify the information, users can access it through filters such as recently added contacts, or those that have been out of touch for a while. LinkedIn determines all that by accessing data from user e-mails, phone conversations and calendar events.

LinkedIn will also gather history from those sources, such as specifics from past conversations, to enhance contact profiles. An updated profile in the Contacts app, for instance, could remind a user of a previous e-mail exchange or the time they met at a networking event. A user can add personal notes about that contact, such as a reminder about where they met or to call them next month about a business opportunity.

The app alerts users about birthdays or job changes. It also allows users to set a reminder for other significant events in their colleagues' lives.

In a business world where keeping in light contact is a priority, this could be one of the most useful features, said Thomas Bibby Varghese, CEO and founder of eBizUniverse.

"The coolest feature, however, is the 'To Do' feature ,where it highlights people to whom it makes the most sense to reach out because there has been a change in job title, new job, birthday or similar life changing event," he told the E-Commerce Times. "This is a great feature for anyone looking to establish a connection or to reignite an old business relationship."

The company said LinkedIn users in the U.S. that have applied for the waiting list will start receiving invitations to try the service over the coming weeks. It will be available on the website or as a standalone app for iPhones.

LinkedIn did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

More Info, More LinkedIn Logins

The Contacts app is a smart way for LinkedIn to get users to spend more time on the site, Varghese said. Instead of being a site where some users make a one-time connection, or login only when they have a professional need, the Contacts app would incentivize users to check in more often.

"Right now LinkedIn is commonly used when you've met someone at an event, and then you come back to your desk and connect with them," he noted. "The other frequent use where LinkedIn ranks high is when one is looking for a job. While those are good, LinkedIn wants to expand their reach. With the launch of this app, LinkedIn is taking the right step in expanding on the theory that it's all about relationships, and this app is essentially a relationship-building tool."
LinkedIn in Makeover Mode

The updated Contacts app is not the only new recent feature for the social network. The site unveiled a revamped search function last month that made it easier for users to find and engage with other LinkedIn professionals.

In some ways, the move made it seem more like its peers in the social media world -- Facebook and Twitter -- where it is easier to find, mention and reach out to lesser-known contacts.

For a site that has carved out a niche as a useful professional networking hub, LinkedIn needs to be careful that it doesn't start to resemble its social media counterparts too closely, said Greg Sterling, founder of Sterling Market Intelligence.

"LinkedIn is definitely trying to make itself more useful as a more regular utility," he told the E-Commerce Times. "It has done a wide range of things to boost frequency. However, LinkedIn should be careful not to dilute its B2B culture and proposition. It can never be Facebook, nor should it try."

The site's Contacts app is an update that its users will want to see, though, said Varghese. While it will collect information from address books and emails, it won't gather anything from Facebook or Twitter, keeping LinkedIn's user base only more eager to engage via the site.

"The changes in LinkedIn are definitely in the right direction, as users are engaging more and more on LinkedIn," he pointed out. "LinkedIn's pageviews have increased 67 percent in the last quarter, which shows they are making the right moves."

Source: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/LinkedIn-Bundles-a-Personal-Assistant-Into-New-Contacts-App-77897.html

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Delta Ray is experienced web scraping consultant and writes articles on Yelp Data Scraping, Linkedin Profile Scraping, Yellowpages Data Scraping, eBay Product Scraping, Amazon Product Scraping, Tripadvisor Data Scraping, Linkedin Email Scraping, Screen Scraping Services, Yelp Review Scraping and yellowpages data scraping.

LinkedIn launches 'Contacts', a new way to manage professional networking

LinkedIn has introduced a new web and mobile application called LinkedIn Contacts, which helps users to build and maintain relationships with their current and former colleagues.

LinkedIn Contacts brings in all contacts from users' address books, e-mail accounts, and calendars using LinkedIn platform. The app will be available on the web via LinkedIn.com as well as a standalone app for iPhone. LinkedIn Contacts will initially available to select users in the U.S. before global roll-out.

According to a Wired report, LinkedIn will not pull contact information from other social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, as it aims to focus on professional networking.

“Professional networking is so important for our jobs and careers,” says Sachin Rekhi, LinkedIn products lead and the former CEO of Connected, which LinkedIn took over in 2011. “The relationships that we keep become so important throughout our careers. But it is a daunting task to keep up with our relationships and keep track of them.”

LinkedIn Contacts also provides ways to stay in touch with contacts. There's a reminder feature that is supposed to help you remember talking to former colleagues. Contacts also notifies users when someone in their contacts has birthday or changes job. Users can message them through LinkedIn or e-mail or call directly through the Contacts app. Other notable features in LinkedIn Contacts include a relationship history view and add private notes to contacts' profiles.

Source: http://www.thinkdigit.com/Apps/LinkedIn-launches-Contacts-a-new-way-to_14390.html

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Thursday 25 April 2013

Web Mining

With the bang of the era of information technology, we have entered into an ocean of information. This information blast is strongly based on the internet; which has become one of the universal infrastructures of information. We can not deny the fact that, with every passing day, the web based information contents are increasing by leaps and bounds and as such, it is becoming more and more difficult to get the desired information which we are actually looking for. Web mining is a tool, which can be used in customizing the websites on the basis of its contents and also on the basis of the user interface. Web mining normally comprises of usage mining, content mining and structure mining.

Data mining, text mining and web mining, engages various techniques and procedures to take out appropriate information from the huge database; so that companies can take better business decisions with precision, hence, data mining, text mining and web mining helps a lot in the promotion of the 'customer relationship management' goals; whose primary objective is to kick off, expand, and personalize a customer relationship by profiling and categorizing customers.

However, there are numbers of matters that must be addressed while dealing with the process of web mining. Data privacy can be said to be the trigger-button issue. Recently, privacy violation complaints and concerns have escalated significantly, as traders, companies, and governments continue to gather and warehouse huge amount of private information. There are concerns, not only about the collection and compilation of private information, but also the analysis and use of such data. Fueled by the public's concern about the increasing volume of composed statistics and effective technologies; conflict between data privacy and mining is likely to root higher levels of inspection in the coming years. Legal conflicts are also pretty likely in this regard.

There are also other issues facing data mining. 'Erroneousness of Information' can lead us to vague analysis and incorrect results and recommendations. Customers' submission of incorrect data or false information during the data importation procedure creates a real hazard for the web mining's efficiency and effectiveness. Another risk in data mining is that the mining might get confused with data warehousing. Companies developing information warehouses without employing the proper mining software are less likely to reach to the level of accuracy and efficiency and also they are less likely to receive the full benefit from there. Likewise, cross-selling may pose a difficulty if it breaks the customers' privacy, breach their faith or annoys them with unnecessary solicitations. Web mining can be of great help to improve and line-up the marketing programs, which targets customers' interests and needs.

In spite of potential hurdles and impediments, the market for web mining is predicted to grow by several billion dollars in the coming years. Mining helps to identify and target the potential customers, whose information are "buried" in massive databases and to strengthen the customer relationships. Data mining tools can predict the future market trends and consumer behaviors, which can potentially help businesses to take proactive and knowledge-based resolutions. This is one of the causes why data mining is also termed as 'Knowledge Discovery'. It can be said to be the process of analyzing data from different points of view and sorting and grouping the identified data and finally to set up a useful information database, which can further be analyzed and exploited by companies to increase and generate revenue and cut costs. With the use of data mining, business organizations are finding it easier to answer queries relating to business aptitude and intelligence, which were very much complicated and intricate to analyze and determine earlier.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6565700

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Heterogenous Data Integration

Handling data is one of the most complicated and key functionality of an application. However one of the key challenges faced is the format of the data. There are legacy data, data available from various data providers, etc., ETL - Extract, Transform and Load promises to resolve the heterogeneous data format. In this research project I analyze the ETL process and present a solution for continuous integration of heterogeneous data in an application.

The information and services available to the applications extend beyond classical database and file system methods. Other methods through which data available are, for example, Web Syndication, Web services, Web API, Legacy Application Interaction etc. These contribute to the enormous volume of data and numerous formats an application needs to handle. To facilitate the process, we present a framework solution that will enable applications to consume data in various format and make it homogeneous format.

Data Properties
A high volume of data is gathered by applications in various industries at a very high rate. The collection of data from various sources is a complex task. The data is not always available from standard database stream. They could be file system, database, feeds, through web services, interaction with legacy systems, etc., In this section we will discuss about various data operations that occur in collecting data from various sources.

Data Loading:

The first key factor is data loading The purpose of this topic is to provide a framework to integrate data not data loading. There is another research project - Continuous Data Sources I'm are currently working on that allows data source definitions and data loading from various sources. For the purpose of this project, I assume the application already has the ability to load data from various sources.

Data aggregation:

For the application to collect the data from various sources and then use it within the application, the data must be aggregated. Application will not able work with independent pieces of data from each source.

Solution

The solution we provide is part of end-to-end solution to handle huge volume of diversified data from nuemerous sources. In this project we focus only the data integration part. The solution can be either implemented and used as standalone for data integration or used in conjunction with other parts of the solution. We are still in the process of updating our web pages with the end-to-end solution. You can subscribe here to learn when we update our site.

Our framework consists of two parts

1. Data provider - This is the source through which the data is made available to the application

2. Framework Library

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2535968

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LinkedIn facing heat from social dining websites

Meet the virtual organisers of a perfect business table. It's true when they say that good food with a not-so-good company could turn out to be a dodgy sandwich. After all, it's the people you eat with that make the meet-up memorable (read profitable).

Today, social dining networks help you arrange for a perfect business meet or dinner to expand your professional contacts through cyberspace. Vastly popular in Boston, Chicago, Italy, New Zealand, and Dubai, the offline-gathering trend is catching up in India as well.

A la LinkedIn for food lovers, sites such as LetsLunch, MunchWithUs, Grubwithus and LunchTree, help you use your lunch time to meet professionals you haven't met, through their websites, LinkedIn or Facebook.

MunchWithUs is an active social dining network site in India. You can take a break from the professional networking sites and expand your contacts offline... while dining.

Offline networking
Ravi Priya, founder, MunchWith-Us , said, "Our main aim is to extend your social network over tasting menus. We are pioneering the 'real-life movement' so that you can continue expanding your social network offline too. These group dinings are arranged in top restaurants in Bangalore, and we look forward to expanding it."

In a survey conducted in the US, citizens were asked what they look forward to in the next year. A fairly common answer was finding someone who could be a business partner, spouse or even mentor.

Coming soon...
One of the most popular social networking sites in the US, LetsLunch, is going to land in the Indian shores in a couple of months. Launched in 2010 by a database engineer, Syed Shuttari, the concept is now active in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Italy and New Zealand.

"Today, there is a need where an individual imagines meeting someone who will make a lot of difference to him or her. Well, everyone eats lunch, and in this age of multi-tasking, social meals are becoming the norm for fulfilling the networking needs rather than finding separate time to network," explains Syed, who completed his IT engineering course from Bangalore.

Let's Lunch sends invites to members who have the same professional interests and a relatively equal online reputation (an indicator which is calculated when you enter your details). It's possible to win a lunch with a business guru, turning an ordinary lunch break into a big chance for career development.

"I have loved meeting people, and here, people come from all over with motivating ideas for the future. Some of the diners even suggest ways on how to make my photography more complex!" grins Aneeta Tom, an amateur photographer and social diner in Bangalore.

Safety factor
Meeting strangers always comes with its share of apprehensions. Fortunately, most social dining websites play safe and screen users' profile and their professional contacts. You can check the profile of each guest on the site beforehand and gauge how productive a possible lunch meeting could be. And yes, no guest can remain anonymous, and gatecrashers are barred.

"After every lunch we ask our users to rate each other privately on relevancy, helpfulness. We keep an internal database of users on a scale of 1-10, and if someone gets a bad rating, then we downgrade them and match them only with others who have got similar ratings," explains Syed, who lives in Silicon Valley.

It's for pros
For instance, LetsLunch uses their users' LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. They ask users to write a summary about themselves and upload their picture. "Not only am I able to eat lunch with a new person and grow my professional network, I am also going to take back something after meeting them; whether it's a book recommendation or an actual business referral," explains Melissa Terry, a recruiter, who has been social dining through LetsLunch in San Francisco for almost two years.

"You are lost when you are new to a city. We don't know where to dine or enjoy a good company. That's where such sites aim to carve out a niche for itself," adds Ravi.

Their punch line will give you a better picture - 'Meet new people and never eat alone. Socialise. So, go ahead and transform your lonely meals into a career opportunity and more carbs. Bon appetit!

Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-04-23/job-trends/38761724_1_contacts-food-lovers-bangalore

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