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LinkedIn will launch a developer program similar to Facebook's platform on December 10. According to the company's PR firm, the new program will allow "select" third-party developers to build "business applications for the Web." We're just glad that In the details that follow, the words "social graph" are nowhere to be seen.

Several applications will be available the day LinkedIn's platform launches. The social network also introduce several new apps of its own on that will "enable them to draw on the wisdom, knowledge, experience, resources, and inspiration of their networks."

It's not good news for Google's OpenSocial initiative, in which LinkedIn is a theoretical partner. Why would LinkedIn need its own platform — if, that is, OpenSocial were anything more than a PR scam?