With over 8 million registered people and growing, the LinkedIn social network is fast becoming the MySpace for business professionals.

LinkedIn members can search millions of people profiles to find former classmates and colleagues or use the social network to make new professional contacts in the business world.

Whether you are looking for lost contacts or trying to make new ones, LinkedIn is the goto social network for busy professionals who are trying to increase their number of job opportunities as well as companies and recruiters looking for potential employees.

You can visit the site @ LinkedIn.com

Central Florida News 13 is reporting on yet another MySpace controversy surrounding about 30 Texas Death Row inmates, who have personal profiles posted on the popular social network site.

From the report –

MySpace Welcomes Death Row Inmates -

At least 30 prisoners awaiting execution in Texas have pages on MySpace, which is used by millions of teenagers around the world to socialize and make friends.
Groups working with crime victims have demanded that the website, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, removes them. So far, MySpace hasn’t responded to any requests by crime victims to take the prisoners pages down.

The profiles list the inmates’ hobbies and personalities and some include blogs in which prisoners relate the daily doings on death row, their favorite music and films, or even the crimes they were convicted of.

As prisoners are not allowed internet access, the profiles are created and managed for them by friends and relatives who receive prisoners’ updates in the form of letters.

One inmate, Randy Halprin, 29, who was involved in the death of a police officer, writes: “I think I’m a pretty funny guy. I have a whacked sense of humor. I can be a big kid at heart. I’m a hopeless (and I mean HOPELESS) romatic [sic].”

Source: cfnews13.com

The Associated Press is reporting on three Georgia police officers could be disciplined over their the messages and pictures that they posted on MySpace.

From the article –

Three Richmond County deputies could be disciplined over posts and pictures in their profiles on MySpace.com.

The deputies are accused of using sheriff’s office property in photos posted on the social networking Internet site and making comments that Sheriff Ronnie Strength said are not in line with office policy.

Patrol Deputies Philip Hambrick, Jason Izquierdo and Colby Harrel will go before a disciplinary review board Thursday, according to Col. Gary Powell.

On one page, Hambrick is pictured holding his county-issued Glock pistol in front of his face “like a gangbanger,” Powell said. On another, Harrel is shown on a motorcycle next to his patrol car.

Officials were also concerned by posts made by Izquierdo. In his page, the deputy offers tips such as how to remove blood from a police uniform and a numbered guide of suggestions to the people he encounters on patrol.

“If you’d read it, you’d know it wasn’t county policy,” Powell said. “He had stuff up there like he didn’t know gold teeth were so easy to knock out – stuff we don’t need to be associated with at all.”

The three deputies are still working, pending their hearing Thursday. The office has three levels of punishment, ranging from a written warning to termination, Powell said.

Source: Ledger-Enquirer.com

Alex Dobrota has written an excellent article warning social network junkies on the professional pitfalls that can come with their posts on social network sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.

From the article –

Social networking websites are the latest craze. They can be helpful tools for job hunters, but be careful: Those photos of all-night parties can backfire if a potential employer stumbles upon them.

Minutes before the unwitting job candidate walked into his office, Brad Karsh decided to go on-line to do a background check. But instead of using Google, Mr. Karsh logged on to Facebook.com, one of several so-called social networking sites that have sprung up on the web.

What he found was a shocking self-portrait of the young man he was about to interview.

“It said that his interests were ’smoking blunts with the homeys’ and ’shooting caps. . .’” — slang expressions for smoking marijuana and shooting people — recalls Mr. Karsh, the president of a small Chicago consulting company.

“I’m assuming that he was joking, but it said to me quite a bit about this man’s judgment.” And, it was enough for Mr. Karsh to disqualify the summer intern hopeful.

The article goes on to give the following tips for users of social networks, who want to practice safe networking online –

Use privacy settings: Most sites have privacy settings that allow access to your site only to those who have a password or special authorization, or to users in your network.

Use a pseudonym: If you must post questionable pictures or information on-line, never do it under your own name.

Search yourself: Don’t assume that because you haven’t posted something, somebody else hasn’t done it for you — and in a way that could come back to haunt you.

Post positive information: Turn your profile into an on-line résumé. If you choose to make your profile publicly accessible, clean up what you might have had in there, and post information about work experience, hobbies, flattering pictures and insightful comments about anything from current events to your industry.

Post selectively: If you must post a critical comment of your boss or of your company, refrain from mentioning names.

Keep in touch with old classmates: On-line connections can be instrumental for your career. Former classmates can be an easy connection — and a great resource about job opportunities.

Source: Globe andMail.com

This story is like something out of a modern crime novel. 11alive.com is reporting that Mesa, Arizona police have foiled the murder plot of a local woman, who wanted to have her ex-boyfriend’s new lover murdered after finding all of her information on his MySpace page.

From 11alive.com –

A murder plot has been foiled in Mesa, Arizona with the arrest of a 22-year-old woman. Police said the woman wanted her ex-boyfriend’s new lover murdered and that she was able to find all the information she needed about the new girlfriend through her ex-boyfriend’s MySpace web page.

Mesa police videotaped the meeting between Heather Kane and an undercover officer posing as a hit man. On the tape, the officer asked, “You don’t want him hit at all. Just her?” Kane is heard answering, “Just her.”

“Just an absolutely bizarre situation where you’ve got a lady so upset at someone she’s only known for three months that she feels like she needed him so badly she would have someone killed. A perfect stranger,” said Jerry Gissel of the Mesa Police Department.

Undercover cops met Kane at a grocery store parking lot. She provided pictures of the woman and addresses pulled from her ex’s MySpace web page. The officer asked, “Are you confident you want this done?” Kane responded, “I’m absolutely confident I want this done.”

Just before she reached for the money to pay the undercover officer, Kane seemed to get suspicious. “I’ve seen cop shows and stuff like that so from what I hear if I ask if you’re a cop and you say no, I’m good.” But Kane made the deal, according to officers, who said she had a final, fatal request.

“Basically [she] said she didn’t care how she was killed, but did want to see a picture of it afterwards,” said Kissel.

The undercover cop agreed. Kane was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

Source: 11alive.com

According to the Associated Press, a high school assistant principle is suing two students, after they created a MySpace people profile with her name and posted false information and obscene comments and pictures about her.

You can read the entire article on USA Today at Official sues students over MySpace page.

TechCrunch has announced today that the popular social network site FaceBook is allowing open registration. FaceBook contains millions of user profiles and people listings.

Skip tracers, private investigators and background research professionals will now have a valuable new search tool, in addition to MySpace and other social network sites, for doing people searches, background searches and pre-employment screening.

According to TechCrunch, Facebook has added a host of new privacy features for people, including:

• Block other users in specific networks from searching for his or her name.

• Prevent people in those networks from messaging, poking and adding him or her as a friend.

• Control whether his or her profile picture shows up in search results.

You can visit the FaceBook site at FaceBook.

Source: TechCrunch

We have discussed the powerful potential of using social networks like MySpace and Facebook to do people searches and background checks and research before.

Once reserved only for high school and college students, Facebook is planning to allow open registration for other people.

According to a post on TechCrunch –

The exclusive Facebook social club, until recently reserved for U.S. college students, has been slowly opening up to other groups. High School students and employees of certain corporations are allowed to create profiles. Recently Facebook also created geographic networks and allowed Facebook users to also add one geographic network to their high school, college or corporate network.

Sometime soon, Facebook will start allowing anyone to join directly into a geographic network, regardless of whether or not they are already a member.

Facebook and MySpace are two of the web’s most popular social networks. Facebook’s interest in allowing open registration will create a great opportunity for private investigators and skip tracers to access another important free web resource for conducting people searches and doing background research on individuals.

Source: TechCrunch.com

In yet another example of the growing influence of online social networks, the Washington Post is reporting on a whistleblower from Lockheed Martin, who posted his concerns about security flaws on a fleet of Coast Guard boats in a video commentary on YouTube.com after being ignored by his bosses and government engineers.

From the article –

Michael De Kort was frustrated.

The 41-year-old Lockheed Martin engineer had complained to his bosses. He had told his story to government investigators. He had called congressmen.

But when no one seemed to be stepping up to correct what he saw as critical security flaws in a fleet of refurbished Coast Guard patrol boats, De Kort did just about the only thing left he could think of to get action: He made a video and posted it on YouTube.com.

Source: On YouTube, Charges of Security Flaws:
Ex-Lockheed Worker Takes Concerns Over Coast Guard Ships to the Web.

We never cease to be amazed at the numerous ways Web 2.0 creators are coming up with to allow people to share more and more personal information online with the entire world. We also never cease to be amazed at how many people are willing to put their lives and personal information on display for others to search and see.

A growing, new network of social maps and atlases allows people to share their favorite hangouts and locations online; making it likely that savvy investigators, people search professionals as well as legal and law enforcement types will be monitoring these sites with interest as they grow in popularity.

From a recent article in PC World on Social Maps and Atlases —

No plain-vanilla mapping site knows your favorite haunts as well as you do. New online services tap that information by enabling you to share your knowledge and memories of your most beloved locales–in your hometown or on the other side of the globe–with the rest of the world. I looked at five of these services: Flagr, 43 Places, Platial, Plazes, and Wayfaring.

Built on conventional mapping data from services such as Google Maps, these sites let you add digital pushpins that link to personal descriptions of the locations.

You can read the entire article @ Social Atlas Sites Let You Map Your Life.