Social Networks - Who do you trust?

I am a member of only one social network, and that is LinkedIn. Contrary to popular opinion I think it is a great way to get in touch with professional contacts both past and present and it really fills a gap that my email contacts cannot by itself. I actually got a hold of an old high school classmate who I knew was in the technology field.

I recently encouraged my wife to get in on the LinkedIn network, as we have recently moved into a new area, and she is looking for work.  I thought this could be another way to found out what is available in Central Ohio area. As she was getting ready to fill out the form we were confronted by this form that requested my email address and password. As much as I admire and even trust LinkedIn there was exactly zero chance of me providing them with the password to my email inbox.

This is like giving someone permission to get a a copy of my house keys because they need to fix the sink, it is just not going to happen. I mean really think about it, how many of your various online accounts can be reset via your email and password combination.

I would much prefer to type each email address by hand, which is exactly what we did. There must be a better way to do this kind of thing ... OpenID anyone!