Following a series of contributions to the machine learning community from its fellow web giants, LinkedIn Inc. decided to join the fray too last week and open-source one of its algorithm development tools. Dubbed Photon ML, the framework is used by the social networking giant’s engineers to personalize members’ news feeds.

The ability to customize content based on the individual preferences of users can come handy in a wide variety of fields ranging from advertising to e-commerce, all of which stand to benefit from LinkedIn’s contribution. However, not every organization that wishes to take advantage of machine learning has the means to build its own algorithms from scratch. In fact, the majority don’t, which is why vendors are increasingly offering the technology as part of turnkey products already optimized for the desired use case.

Cylance Inc., for instance, has infused machine learning algorithms into its namesake antivirus software to improve threat detection. The startup raised $100 million in funding for its efforts last week from a group of backers led by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and Insight Venture Partners. The investment comes on the heels of Gartner Inc. naming the firm as the fastest growing vendor in its niche following a 785 percent user-count gain over the past three years.

Meanwhile, the Boston-based Crimson Hexagon Inc. is applying analytics to help marketers gain a better understanding of consumers. The outfit unveiled a new tool called HelioSight last week that searches social networks for discussions about a company, criticisms and other user input that might reveal ways to improve brand perception. For added measure, its algorithms also break down the data by demographics to help organizations focus their efforts on the groups that require the most attention.

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