LinkedIn to cut back on e-mails

As many job seekers know, networking can be a delicate art. In person, aggressive networkers earn themselves blank stares and no jobs, the human equivalent of the spam filter.

If LinkedIn, one of the Internet’s largest professional networking sites, were a person, it would be the guy who looks nice enough, but has a tendency to pelt strangers with business cards at happy hour. The site is notorious for its aggressive e-mail blasts — Are you absolutely, positively sure you don’t want to connect with Kathy? — and is often the target of public gripes from overwhelmed users.

This week, LinkedIn decided that less is more.