McCain Trials New LinkedIn Poll Service

In the US, Republican Presidential candidate Senator John McCain is among the first users of a new polling system on business networking site LinkedIn.

While still in beta testing, the new LinkedIn Polls platform enables organizations to run business and market research surveys across the site's network of 23 million professionals and seek their feedback on business strategy or research questions.

McCain's poll asks: 'What has the most long-term potential to make gas affordable for Americans?' with possible responses being: a) Oil exploration in US territories, b) Alternative energy research, c) Better Middle East relations, d) Smaller vehicles, e) I don't know.

Once completed, the respondent is taken to a page that not only shows a summary of the up-to-the-minute results, but also displays a detailed breakdown of how certain types of professionals answered the question, as well as details about their gender and age. The poll will be live for one week and participants can only vote once.

At 1.30pm GMT, the poll had apparently received 3,019 responses, of which 62% said alternative energy research is the key to making gas prices affordable, and just 2% suggested better Middle East relations could play a part.

In June, using the site's free LinkedIn Answers service, fifteen hundred members answered Senator Barack Obama's question on how the next President could help small business and entrepreneurs thrive. Since becoming the Democratic nominee, he has posed a second question.

McCain's poll is available at http://blog.linkedin.com/blog/2008/07/mccain-poll.html .

Web site: www.linkedin.com .