[srjk]

They have been moving into "sales intelligence". Their data/professional graph is a pretty big (maybe only) competitive advantage for the next year or two in that area. So, it follows that they would block off access for possible competitors and/or cordon off more data. This move became inevitable when they partitioned their API by "partner access" a while back.

However, this is great news :) It will just make linkedin irrelevant quicker. They are moving away from being a social network for professionals to being a source of sales intelligence. Most users wont be too happy with that. And, unlike facebook, linkedin is much easier to migrate off of. Really, linkedin was the first big professional network, not the last one.

IMHO angellist is more in line with what the future of professional networks is.