LinkedIn launches `Apply with LinkedIn’ button

NEW YORK — Professional networking service LinkedIn Corp. has launched a Web button that lets job applicants submit their profiles on the site to jobs that interest them.

The blue button, “Apply with LinkedIn,” appears on online job listings on company and jobs websites alongside more general buttons such as “Apply Now” that recruiters have been using.

It’s LinkedIn’s version of efforts by other online networks, such as Facebook, to spread beyond their own sites across the broader Web. LinkedIn said thousands of companies, including Netflix and LivingSocial, have made the “Apply with LinkedIn” button available on their websites.

Companies can customize the LinkedIn plugin to include application questions or ask for a cover letter. Applicants, meanwhile, can see if any of their LinkedIn connections work for the company they are applying to and send them a message.