Google Base(less)?

Not to rain on anybody’s parade, but a couple of points to consider about Google Base:

• Not going to do anything for the pursuit of Brand Talent.
• Requires a Gmail email address. Most companies block access to external email sites like Gmail.
• Therefore requires employees to sign-up for personal account. If they leave, they still get the contacts from the ad.
• These last two are not  problems that Craig’s List suffers from.

And finally, I don’t see this having any meaningful impact on the Vertical Search players (Indeed, SimplyHired and Jobster) or on the referral / passive tools (like Jobster, H3 and JobThread). As I said here, “if passive candidates use (vertical search), money will flow.” Now that I use the term “Brand Talent” I will change that phrase to “If Brand Talent uses (vertical search), money will flow.” I just don’t see how Google is going to attract Brand Talent to look at their job listings. I think Jason Goldberg is pretty much on the mark. For the problem EA  is trying to solve, getting more people to apply to my ATS doesn’t do me a lot of good. We may still use it, but we are going to be realistic about the problem we are trying to solve and the results we might get.

But I do agree with Joel that this is a good way to extend your brand. A lot of curiosity seekers ou there, and it can't hurt to have your logo linked to a Google search!

Comments

[Michael Specht]

I have to disagree Jeff I think Google Base will over time have an impact on how SME approach the marketplace. Given that we now have Yahoo, Google and MSN entering this space it will get very noise and there will still be a place for vertical search to aggrgate the data fro the job seeker. But employers who are at the smaller end of town will use these services instead of paying for a traditional job board spot.

[valnur]

We are in a similar market as Google Base but our product gives structure (while still not imposing any set of predefined categories) to our index and therefore makes it possible for users to not only perform keyword search but also browse hierarchically with the ability to specify unlimited number of filters to refine their search.

Valnur
http://www.valnur.com