Okay, who's impressed with Google base?

I have been hearing about Google's product du jour - Google Base. For those who don't know, Google Base appears to be Google's attempt to conquer the classifieds market (or Craigs List?). When I think classifieds, I think of used cars, collectibles and personals ads. I never think of resumes, but hmmm... I wonder.

I do a search for resumes based on keywords and Google syntax and I keep getting scores of job postings. (Not what I wanted.) Hmm...

I browse through the results a bit more and see that many of the links are pointing outside of the realm of Google Base. For example, I type in "software engineer" and I see links to Careerbuilder jobs only. Grrr...

I was about to give up on this and walk away, but my digability-sense (not to be confused with "spider-sense") began tingling. So I knew there were leads to be found. Long story short, I found them.

Most of the links on Google Base point to web pages somewhere on the web, but not ALL of the links. Google Base allows users to add/upload text to Google Base like a stand-alone webpage. Okay, I see your eyes glazing over, so let me just show you what I did.

Check out this "G' String" (which is what I call a Google Search String). Click is to see it in action.

(intitle:resume intitle:my=resume intitle:resume=of) inurl:base intext:engineer

"Hey Jim," you say, "What is this G' String saying?"

To which I reply, "It is saying, Google Base, please look in the title of your documents for "Resume, My Resume or Resume Of" and those results that have "base" in the URL and while you are it, check for any text that says - "engineer." At this writing there are only 9 and if you remove the request for "intext:engineer" your results bump up to 40.

So what is the final analysis on using Google Base for finding resumes?

Digability rating: Yawn! (Try something else.)

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RESOURCES FOR RECRUITERS

ADV: WEDDLE'S Directory of Employment-Related Internet Sites ADV: WEDDLE'S Guide to Association Web Sites ADV: Advanced Strategies for Recruiters (Audio CD)

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Click to vote for Digability!

Tis The Season for sourcing retail help

If you are on the hunt for retail help (and who isn't during this time of the year?), I suggest checking out this list of links I found on About: Retail Job Search Boards and Retail Recruiters

This is SCARY brilliant!

If I am a fanatic of anything, it is imagination and strategic thought. I suppose this is why I flipped over backwards when I read this post. It discusses Social Networks as a whole, discusses what they are doing wrong and cites related tools. Very good job! I LOVE THIS MAP! (see below)

Here is a snippet...

In preparation for one of my presentations in San Jose, I've been trying to define the boundaries of Social Networking, rather than simply (and less usefully) trying to define the term. The best way I found to do so is to list the various functionalities (applications) of Social Software by objective, rather than listing the tools themselves by type of content (as Judith Meskill does with her wonderful omnibus directory of current Social Software) or by audience. Most Social Software serves more than one function and has more than one objective, but that doesn't invalidate this as a useful taxonomy for Social Networking -- in fact, by deconstructing the functionality of various Social Software tools we might actually get some insight into what combinations of functionality, when well designed and integrated, make a good product.

What emerged from this effort is a 'Landscape' diagram of Social Networking, shown above. The eight major objectives are:

• Finding people (discovering, rediscovering, or locating them)
• Building directories, network maps and social networks
• Inviting people to join your networks
• Managing access to your networks ("permissioning")
• Connecting with people in your networks (using various media)
• Managing relationships across media (e.g. making the jarring transition from e-mail or weblog-based relationships to voice-to-voice or face-to-face)
• Collaborating with people in your networks...

Click here to read the entire article...

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RESOURCES FOR RECRUITERS

ADV: WEDDLE'S Directory of Employment-Related Internet Sites
ADV: WEDDLE'S Guide to Association Web Sites
ADV: Advanced Strategies for Recruiters (Audio CD)

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Have time for a quickie?

Here is a neato trick that will save you time on your resume sourcing. Instead of visiting your favorite searchengine, type in your keywords into the address bar. If you are using Internet Explorer, chances are MSN Search is your default searchengine. By typing your terms in the address bar (shown above), your keywords are taken to a results page featuring your terms. For example, typing in resume software engineer in the address bar, will most likely take you to some interesting results. (Click here to see what I mean.)

Now in some cases, typing in these terms make take you to another searchengine like Yahoo or Google. If so, most likely you have a toolbar from one of those companies and have elected to make these websites your default search engine.

Happy Hunting!

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RESOURCES FOR RECRUITERS

ADV: WEDDLE'S Directory of Employment-Related Internet Sites ADV: WEDDLE'S Guide to Association Web Sites ADV: Advanced Strategies for Recruiters (Audio CD)

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Come on, everybody loves a polka!

Who remembers how it used to be when Napster was the #1 (and only one) file swapping service out there? Umm... not saying that I engaged in illegal downloading of music files (umm... that would be bad), but I have heard that it was quite the wild, wild west. Imagine having a music collection as big as the internet itself. Nowadays we have MSN Music, Itunes, Rhapsody and a host of other services on the web allowing you to legally share and purchase all the music you desire. Yes sir, illegal file swapping is done, finish, kaput! (Yeah, right!)

There are services out there that allow free file sharing like Bit Torrent and Kazaa, but it seems companies like that are always in the news for violations of one sort or another. What is an anti-capitalist anachist to do? Well, probably the same thing hackers have been doing on the down-low since Napster went under the legal gun. I call it, the poor man's peer-to-peer system.

I found this link while skimming through some blogs on the MSN Spaces network. Ironicly, it is a post entitled, "google advanced search technique" and it demonstrates with search strings how to find free music (among other things) by skimming the indexes of web users everywhere. Here is a sample string (go ahead and click it):

-inurl:htm -inurl:html -inurl:php -inurl:asp intitle:"index of" (mp3wma)

At this writing I get more random samples of music than I care to review. Hmm... What if I could limit the results down to a particular artist like... Lawrence Welk! (And why not? Everybody loves a polka!) So I add in Lawrence Welk using the equal sign between his name rather than using double quotes (like this "Lawrence Welk") because it seems to work better. Or maybe that's just me. Anyways, here is my new and improved search string.

-inurl:htm -inurl:html -inurl:php -inurl:asp intitle:"index of" (mp3wma) lawrence=welk

Not many results for Lawrence Welk out there, but I did have luck with the very first search result. By clicking the link Index of /bgm and scrolling through the results, I find the classic tune Lawrence Welk - Yellow Bird.wma.

What else is there to say but, "Rock on!"

RESOURCES FOR RECRUITERS

ADV: WEDDLE'S Directory of Employment-Related Internet Sites
ADV: WEDDLE'S Guide to Association Web Sites
ADV: Advanced Strategies for Recruiters (Audio CD)

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