So, you may have seen on Friday the news that Google has continued its plans to enter the property market, allowing UK users to search for property on Google maps. We are able to drill down on the overlay icon and search by property type, number of bedrooms etc.
The first thought of many recruitment types will have been, is this an indication of future Google plans for another major classified area: jobs?
A Google spokesman stated that the property market made sense as half of all search queries have a geographical component.
The location of where we work is of course important to us. We know spending too much of your day getting to and from work is a major pain and it has an impact on our work life balance.
Research I recall, from a few years ago (maybe from The Newspaper Society) showed that a significant proportion of people wouldn't work beyond a certain radius of where they lived. The locality based insight that a Google job searching tool would give candidates throughout the UK would be significant.
Going beyond the basic locality based insight of Google maps and looking at the further content that such a tool could give jobseekers is where it gets even more interesting....
I really loved the partnership I read about a couple of months ago of Foursquare and The History Channel in the US. It was a great mash-up of a location based tool being enriched by a media partnership. I love history, so being able to get a historical background on the locations I and my network were checking into in real time was 'right up my street'.
It's along these lines that I see the job seeking experience becoming more insightful and a richer experience. Not only can we potentially see on a map where a job that suits our basic criteria is based, we could see a lot more....
Google earth video of the surrounding area? places to go for a sandwich in the area, people you know who happen to work in the vicinity? sponsored company profiles with staff showing you around the office environment? A tool that rates the company as a place to work along the lines of Amazon, Glassdoor etc.
The possibilties are endless, very interesting and very exciting.
What would this mean for the future of job boards?
Would make it tricky for sure. Job boards will have to continue and accelerate investment in technology and smart media partnerships that provide their users with a comprehensive toolkit that provide genuine, real time insights to aid them in making the best career decisions.
Better still, do we see Google and particular job board partnerships on the horizon?
Perhaps this will be the natural evoltion. Time will tell.
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