LinkedIn Buys Real-Time Search Startup IndexTank

LinkedIn has acquired San Francisco-based IndexTank, a provider of real-time hosted search technology, for an undisclosed amount.

LinkedIn and IndexTank say that the acquisition will help improve LinkedIn’s internal search technology.

“LinkedIn has exploded over the past few years, and the search team has done a fantastic job at building world-class technologies to keep up with the growth,” IndexTank founder and CEO Diego Basch said in a blog post. “Of course, this doesn’t stop here and we’re working on the next play. This growth will continue and perhaps accelerate.”

“One day every smartphone owner could use LinkedIn to find opportunity,” he continued. “Perhaps the Ghana fishermen will choose to network with each other and form cooperatives through their mobile phones. We need to be able to manage billions of people profiles and jobs. I believe IndexTank’s world-class search technology and experience will be instrumental in taking LinkedIn to this next level. I can’t wait to show you how.”

LinkedIn has committed to keeping IndexTank running for the next six months and open-sourcing key components so users can transition to other providers. IndexTank has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from K9 Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Patagonia Ventures, Michael Dearing and Steve Anderson. IndexTank announced the launch of its real-time, easy to customize, hosted search API for developers, in February 2011. According to the company’s press release, IndexTank’s software was “created to wrangle the massive data available on today’s web, IndexTank enables developers to easily import datasets from APIs and databases and quickly leverage them to build or test application ideas.”

“LinkedIn is a company with the potential to make the world a better place by creating economic opportunities. Connecting people around the world is a net win, and it creates value that simply did not exist before,”  Basch wrote in his blog post. “I am happy to see this sentiment in the Valley that goes way beyond just not being evil (even at the company that invented that slogan). LinkedIn has some extremely successful leaders who could choose to do anything they wanted. When you see them working hard at bringing career opportunities to the remote corners of the world, you know it’s not just another company trying to sell a random luxury item.”