LinkedIn appears adamant about not overwhelming its professional users, who tend to be far less playful than the Facebook community. Sundar says that the company will ensure its applications don't violate the privacy of its users by making them pass a vigorous vetting process before they become publicly available on the site.

Though LinkedIn applications may access the information on user profiles, including connection lists, Sundar says that user email addresses will not be made available to third-parties, preventing the possibility they spam users with product pitches.

"Privacy practices are a critical point of the integrity of the applications, " Sundar says. "When you come to the professional space like ours, it's so important."

According to , a senior analyst at Forrester Research who examines social technologies, one of the upsides to LinkedIn's new applications is that they expand the area in which a business person can collaborate and share information; it's no longer limited to the company intranet or the cumbersome process of sending multiple e-mails.

"You can collaborate with your colleagues at a company and, even beyond, with your business contacts [from other companies]," Owyang on web strategy. "Imagine that, getting work done with people that aren't even your colleagues."