Ask HN: Any startups doing anything interesting with LinkedIn API? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Any startups doing anything interesting with LinkedIn API?

15 pointsshyamster10 comments

Don't see any startup activity even with 60M+ users on LinkedIn and an open API. Am I missing something?

The big problem with the LinkedIn API is that the ToS are pretty harrowing.

Who knows what they'll do to you if you succeed in using their (extremely valuable) data set: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linkedin_platform_pros_...

Thanks for the link...just read the terms and it does not look encouraging.

Right, and you have to be logged in through OAuth to get anything out of the API (As far as I can tell, please prove me wrong though), which really diminishes the value you can get out of the platform as a third party.

Hi, can you explain your PoV ? How OAuth diminishes the value ?

OAuth requires a user to be logged in, which is fine if that is the type of service you are running. If you want to search LinkedIn like you might twitter, you are out of luck if you want to do it through the API. And even if you do have a service that OAuth fits, the TOS is scary enough to avoid it.

Indeed. We had four ideas for apps. None are compatible with their ToS. Calling it an open API is a bit unfair. It is only open from a technological perspective, not from a legal perspective.

Plus, they have all sorts of bans on scraping, etc. They say users own their own data, but if their users use any tools to try to get their data, they block the tools....

It's too bad, because there are a lot of great things that could be built.

The fact that it wasn't always so open (especially to the developer masses) has probably steered a lot of people away from being interested. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/linkedin_hits_50_millio...

but my guess is that developers are a forgiving lot and if there's a way to be successful, they'd forgive and forget...no?

we're generally a fickle bunch.

There's some interesting things being done by 7 degrees, not with the LinkedIn API, but in the same space. They have pulled in so much data that you can practically find out how you're connected to anybody. They incorporate LinkedIn in the sense that you have the option to give it your LinkedIn credentials and it then scrapes your connections through it. I know exactly how I'm connected to Bill Gates, for example (i.e. I know so-and-so, who knows so-and-so, etc., who knows Bill Gates). https://www.mypeoplemaps.com/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com