The social network for professionals, LinkedIn, is now offering an Android application to compliment its popular iOS (Apple’s mobile platform) and Blackberry implementations.  This app was the logical next step, as LinkedIn has seen a huge increase in members accessing the site from the Android platform.  This app has also been anticipated since the buzz broke that LinkedIn had hired Cedric Beust from Google.  Check out the LinkedIn blog for the full press release.

Since the app is still in its beta version, you’ll need to join the “LinkedIn for Android” group first if you’d like to get it now.  The beta version of the app allows the user to view updates from their professional network, updates from newly established connections, changes to contact profiles, and the popular articles and information from among your contacts.

The app nicely leverages Android’s search function, offering the ability to search for contacts and people from inside the app. LinkedIn says that this app gives the user the fastest search experience of all mobile platforms (not a big surprise from a Google operating system).

Android users can also use the app to send and respond to invitations and message their contacts within invitations. In the future, look for full inbox access, sharing and commenting on updates, and integration of the “People You May Know” feature.

LinkedIn would still be incredibly popular without this app (it adds a member every second) but with Android becoming the most popular mobile platform, a powerful app like this is only going to increase their traffic.