Help Wanted: Seeking Simplification in Job Search
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Written By Reprise Media | February 2, 2006 | Share This
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Anyone who’s used the internet for a job search recently knows that the massive amount of information available - not to mention its sometimes questionable veracity - can make finding anything worthwhile a daunting task. If that wasn’t bad enough, the format of job search results, which are often buried amidst countless sidebars and boxes on busy pages, can also be confusing and cause headaches for the employee-to-be.
Well, the Kelsey Group’s Managing Editor, Greg Sterling, recently had a sit down with the folks at Simplyhired.com and posted his thoughts on Search Engine Journal. The site features one of the cleanest job search interfaces we’ve ever used, and many of its features had Sterling impressed as well:
“…On top of search results the company is building lots and lots of added value. In other words, aggregating the listings from multiple providers (including the big three) is just the beginning…One can save jobs, rate jobs, map jobs, virally email jobs, do salary research and, perhaps most significantly, network via linked-in (find contacts who work or have worked at the company).”
But is there room for the little guy in the competitive job search market, even if they’re making impressive strides with streamlining vertical search? The most commonly known brands are in a furious scrape; despite a modest uptick in its 4th quarter performance, Monster is still losing market share to Careerbuilder, according to the Internet Stock Blog.
Of course there’s always the time-honored tradition of pushing these tough questions aside, blowing off your job search, and playing a game. Search Engine Watch brings word of one developed by Yahoo! Research called the Tech Buzz Game. Players start with $10,000 in fake money, then “invest” in technologies based how much “buzz” they expect that brand to generate in future Yahoo! searches. The project has several serious goals as well, which include trying “To see if search buzz (including spikes and trends) can indeed be predicted by the collective wisdom of crowds in a market.” Have fun, but just be careful not to lose your fake shirt.
Topics: Search: Vertical |