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.
Really interesting post Sinead, I have been a great believe for a long time that job boards must look at investing into expert systems to actually give the job seeker support and help when looking for a job. Unfortunately I am yet to see any real investment in this side of the industry.
Posted by: John | 05/07/2010 at 12:44 PM
Ed & I have thought that Google Job Search is an obvious path for them. I am certain that if they started a worldwide job board it would be instantly successful. Although I don't think it would affect WikiJob so immediately (graduate is a little more immune from such fast changes), the higher volume websites like Monster and TotalJobs might have a bit more to worry about.
Posted by: Chris Muktar | 06/07/2010 at 08:37 PM