Linkedin

LinkedIn has been billed as the anti-Facebook. And its third-quarter earnings are certainly getting a very un-Facebook-like reception on Wall Street. LinkedIn shares, which closed at $106.85, up 8 cents, jumped 5% in after-hours trading Thursday after the professional networking company blew past analyst forecasts, making a profit and growing revenue faster than expected. The Mountain View, Calif., company said it earned $2.3 million, or 2 cents a share, in the third quarter.

LinkedIn just unveiled a sleek new look for profile pages that it hopes will get people to spend more time and come back more often. The professional network, dubbed "the anti-Facebook" with 175 million users and its shares trading at about $111, said the new design, which will roll out over the next few months, makes it easier for users to update their profiles and connect with others. It's all part of a push to fuel growth and engagement on LinkedIn. LinkedIn wants people to visit LinkedIn every day to stay in touch with their professional contacts, not just when they are job hunting, much the way people check Facebook each day for status updates from their friends.

Production of the unconfirmed iPad mini reportedly has begun. The Wall Street Journal says executives at Apple suppliers confirmed rumors that the Apple tablet went into production last month. Among those working on the device are LG Display Co. and AU Optronics Corp., which are both working on the iPad mini's 7.85-inch LCD display. iPad mini: Rumor round-up The iPad mini's screen is also expected to have a lower resolution than the existing 9.7-inch iPad's, according to the report.

Borrowing from Twitter and other social networks, LinkedIn will now let its users follow specific individuals and receive their updates. The professional social network announced Tuesday that users will be able to subscribe to 150 "influential thought leaders" to receive their posts. Previously, LinkedIn users could get updates from companies and industries but not individuals unless those individuals approved the connection. LinkedIn follows other social networks who have this feature including Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.

LinkedIn announced it has introduced redesigned business profiles, which are officially known as Company Pages, to make them more helpful to users than they previously were. However, one of the new features looks a lot like that of a LinkedIn competitor's, and that's because the professional social network has added new images to the top of Company Pages that look like the Cover Photos used by Facebook for user profiles and their business pages. "We know a picture is worth a thousand words, so we've provided companies with the ability to easily add an image that best represents their company and brand," LinkedIn said in a press release.

Twitter has stopped displaying the names of third-party services used to send tweets. This means you will no longer see that tweets on Twitter's website and mobile app have been sent from services such as Tweet-bot, Seesmic, HootSuite and others. Don't worry, you'll still be able to use those services to send tweets, but those third-party services will be hurting because Twitter has dramatically cut their visibility. The change is part of a continuing effort by Twitter to direct focus at its official platforms after long embracing third-party services.

LinkedIn confirmed a redesign to its profile pages Monday and also said it plans to roll out many more changes throughout the rest of the year. Following an earlier story reporting changes to profile pages on LinkedIn, the company contacted the Los Angeles Times Monday afternoon with a statement. "We are focused on making it easier for LinkedIn members to get more value out of the services we offer by creating simpler, more relevant, more social experiences," a company spokeswoman said in an email.

LinkedIn has begun to roll out a new look for its profile pages, placing a greater emphasis on user summaries as the site continues to grow as a popular recruitment tool, according to a report. The new look, which is believed to be rolling out to new users slowly, now shows a larger picture and user name, and brings user summaries higher up. In a trade-off for those changes, LinkedIn has dropped user websites, contact information and Twitter handles from the top of profiles. It also presents past experience, user connections and custom profile URLs in a more elegant but much smaller manner.

You've got mail on Yahoo and GMail, updates in Facebook, mentions on Twitter and connections on LinkedIn. So many windows, so little bandwidth. Now people-search company MyLife wants to offer you a single door to open your digital life. "The demand is very clear," CEO Jeffrey Tinsley told The Times in an interview. "It's an idea whose time has really come. " The site offers users a simplified dashboard that pulls together in one section messages directed at you -- email, Facebook timeline posts, Twitter mentions and comments on your content.

Though news broke that a technology firm purchased most of what was left of Digg for $500,000 Thursday, the total price of collapse of the once-promising site may be closer to $16 million. Betaworks paid a reported $500,000 for the site, which reportedly gave the firm Digg's brand, website, technology and 7 million monthly visitors. But since news of the sale broke, TechCrunch has been insistent that the total cost is much more than $500,000. The tech site says that when you factor in hires by a subsidiary of the Washington Post Co. and patent purchases by LinkedIn, the total price actually breaks the million-dollar mark.