In Germany there's XING which I think has a similar purpose (professional relationships, both for contractors as well as employees) and is relatively popular AFAICT. I'm not on XING, but what I heard about it from colleagues is that when IT contracting was at its height not so long ago they got several "cold" contacts per week from desperate people (MBA types, mostly) that have neither customers nor projects nor professional experience. Don't know if this is representative of XING; it might actually be not half-bad. But then the way the consulting business works here is that customers rarely approach freelancers directly and use agencies instead.
In Germany there's XING which I think has a similar purpose (professional relationships, both for contractors as well as employees) and is relatively popular AFAICT. I'm not on XING, but what I heard about it from colleagues is that when IT contracting was at its height not so long ago they got several "cold" contacts per week from desperate people (MBA types, mostly) that have neither customers nor projects nor professional experience. Don't know if this is representative of XING; it might actually be not half-bad. But then the way the consulting business works here is that customers rarely approach freelancers directly and use agencies instead.