Just a few days ago, LinkedIn announced that they have hit the 50 million membership mark.  While it pales in comparison to Facebook's 300 million+ members, the company feels very upbeat because they have about 14% of the approximately 360 million white collar works worldwide.  To demonstrate their growth, it took LinkedIn sixteen months to reach one million but only 12 days to get their last million!

So why are professionals joining LinkedIn?  Many feel it is a way to take control of their employment destiny as well as a place to network with professionals in their own or other fields.  Members can post a resume-like profile, past employment history, links to off-site documents and websites, slide show presentations and even their Amazon.com book list.  It is definately NOT the place to play "Mafia Wars".