LinkedIn announced today it has purchased Newsle, a machine-learning web app for discovering relevant news and information about important contacts.

Newsle scans the web to find relevant blogs and article about specific contacts and deliver notifications almost in real time. According to Ryan Roslansky, head of content products at Linkedin, “Knowing more about the people in your network – like when they’re mentioned in the news – can surface relevant insights that help you hit your next meeting with them out of the park.” 

Newsle will likely benefit not just sales professionals, but digital marketing professionals as well. Discovering news about people in your network will ultimately help you develop more personalized content for your audience.

Both companies say Newsle will continue to operate as a standalone product for now. But with the right kind of integration between the two platforms, the Newsle acqusition may be one of the best news for social marketing in recent months (read Why Businesses Can’t Depend on Facebook Anymore and LinkedIn falls flat on consumer engagement).