LinkedIn Buys Refresh to Become More Predictive
The leading social network for professionals, LinkedIn, now should get much closer to the area of anticipatory computing. Yesterday, the company announced that the predictive insights startup Refresh would join the network, as well as close down its eponymous iOS app on April 15.
More specifically, Refresh (which is based in Mountain View, California) helps users to find out key details about people they are scheduled to meet. While the service surfs the Internet for any item mentioning those people, the Refresh app pulls info from the user's Facebook or LinkedIn account and analyses profiles and events to provide a so-called dossier on a particular person.
The deal was confirmed in a blogpost written by Refresh co-founder Bhavin Shah: ''Today, I’m excited to announce that Refresh has been acquired by LinkedIn … Our joint passion for delivering insights that help professionals be more productive is what makes joining LinkedIn so exciting. Plus, LinkedIn gives us an opportunity to share insights with more than 347 million professionals across the globe.''
