There’s an interesting discussion going on in the comment section of a recent blog post by Alison Doyle between Alison and one of her readers. Alison wrote a post entitled “A Few Good Job Sites” in which she recommended that job seekers use job search engines such as LinkUp, Indeed, and Simplyhired. In a comment, ‘Paul’ criticized these and other aggregator sites as being very frustrating for job seekers due to the preponderance of old listings and duplicate jobs. Alison, in a reply comment, correctly points out that LinkUp’s job search engine contains no duplicate or outdated job listings because LinkUp only indexes jobs from company websites. In reading the exchange, I thought I’d weigh in on how I would define and differentiate sites like LinkUp, Indeed, and Simplyhired.

A job board aggregator such as Indeed or Simplyhired, is a site that aggregates job listings from multiple websites, usually dozens or even hundreds of other sites. These job listing contain links to the original source of the job, where job seekers can then apply for that job. In the case of Indeed and Simplyhired, job listings are supplied by hundreds of job boards all over the country that deliver a data feed of the jobs listed on their sites to Indeed and Simplyhired. Those hundreds of data feeds are then amassed into a gigantic database of listings that will undoubtedly contain duplicate listings for the same job because many employers advertise their openings on multiple job boards. Equally as problematic, the job feeds that Indeed and Simplyhired accept also contain old, outdated jobs that have already been filled, and even worse, garbage jobs that include work-at-home scams, phishing jobs, scam jobs, and listings from headhunters, staffing and temp firms, and recruiters. So in that regard, comments from ‘Paul’ on Alison’s blog are absolutely correct. Aggregators that rely on data feeds from job  boards for all or most of their job listings are very, very frustrating for job seekers (and employers, too, for that matter).

But LinkUp should not be lumped into that same criticism, as Alison rightly points out. LinkUp only aggregates job listings from company websites. We index the jobs listed on career portals from over 22,000 company websites and update LinkUp every day. We do not list any jobs from other job boards. Period. As a result, LinkUp’s job listings are always current, often unadvertised anywhere else on the web, and never fake. So while I might consider LinkUp a job aggregator given the fact that we list jobs from thousands of sites around the web, I’d more accurately classify LinkUp as a job search engine.

A job search engine is a site that actively scours the web for job listings that are only found on company websites and indexes those jobs into a giant search engine. Indexing is done with ’spiders’ that crawl other websites rather than collecting a data feed supplied by someone else. And if the company doing the indexing is a considerate and responsible one (like LinkUp), that indexing is done in an open and transparent manner in the middle of the night when site traffic is low. While both Indeed and Simplyhired list jobs from larger company websites, the vast majority of their jobs are sourced from other job boards that pay for the traffic that Indeed and Simplyhired send to them.

It may seem like a minor or even trivial distinction, but the differences between aggregators like Indeed and Simplyhired and job search engines like LinkUp have a major impact on the quality of service delivered to both job seekers and employers alike.

There’s been a ridiculous amount of coverage lately in the recruiting industry about Twitter’s impact on the space. I am a fan of Twitter and have found it to be an advantageous tool to leverage for specific applications in our business. I also think that it is an interesting and potentially valuable tool for job seekers and employers. But the attention being paid to Twitter in the recruiting business is way overblown and far outweighs its true value in the process of finding a job or an employee.

Before anyone freaks out and dismisses this post with a “you don’t get it” or “you’re an idiot,” I would argue quite vehemently that I do and I’m not. Twitter is a really cool tool in the social media space, and it has definite value for job seekers and employers. There are lots of jobs being distributed into and through Twitter, and job seekers should be spending some time exploring what’s out there via Twitter. Employers and job boards too should be leveraging Twitter as a means to distribute their jobs to a wider, possibly different, audience as well as perhaps more convenient channel (at least for some). But Twitter is no different that any other channel (print, web, radio, TV, mobile, RSS, newsletters, podcasts, etc.) that employers and job seekers should be exploring to improve their chances of successfully accomplishing their respective goals. But diversification across multiple channels is critical, and the notion that Twitter alone is sufficient to achieve success is patently absurd. Even more ludicrous are the recruitment advertising businesses springing up that are based entirely around Twitter.

As just a small test of Twitter, I searched for Creative Director on Twitterjobsearch.com. There were 6,000+ search results.

I scrolled down a bit and clicked on advertischicago’s job for a creative director/Art, and was taken to AdvertisChicago’s Twitter page.

After clicking on the same job again, I was taken to Indeed.com’s page, where I discovered that the job was no longer available on Oddskills.com, the original source of the job listing.

So after 3 clicks, I found that a job that was tweeted about only 2 hours ago was no longer available and that the listing itself had traveled through 4 places. This was the first job I clicked on, and the experience was just as useless as any job search on Indeed, SimplyHired, Monster, CareerBuilder, or any other jobs site that has old, outdated, and duplicative job listings, and/or fake/fraudulent/scam jobs. It took me just one try to find exactly the type of experience that I assumed I would find sooner or later, and that is why I am confident that I do ‘get it’ and that I’m not an idiot when I dismiss the wave of job-related businesses that are basing their entire service model around Twitter.

LinkUp, arguably the best national jobs site on the web today, has released a widget that allows any blogger (or any site for that matter) to publish jobs on their blog or web site. The widget is available here, and can be customized to publish only those jobs that the hosting site wants to publish (i.e., marketing jobs in San Francisco). (scroll down on this blog to see what the widget looks like…). Customization is achieved by selecting from any of the following criteria: key word, location, specific company name(s), and category or vertical industry. LinkUp also allows people to set the pixel dimensions of the widget through sliding bars for widget height and width (one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen for making widgets). Once the customization aspects have been set, code is generated for that specific widget to copy into the blog or web site. It couldn’t be any easier.

Eventually, we will begin paying affiliate sites a share of the click revenue that they generate on the job listings that employers are running paid-search campaigns on. And while I would certainly not pretend that the widget is going to provide anyone with a massive flow of cash, we hope that affiliate sites benefit from delivering a stream of very specialized, high-quality job listings that match the exact content of their blog or site.

For a limited time, I will send a free DVD of the movie Sweet Land to anyone that publishes the widget on their site. Just send me an email at diggings@jobdig.com once you have the widget loaded onto your site with the details of where I can send the DVD.

About LinkUp…

LinkUp’s mission is really quite simple – to build the largest, highest-quality, most searchable, relevant, and user-friendly database of jobs anywhere on the web. We do this by aggregating job listings that employers post on their own corporate web site. These job listings, pulled from roughly 10,000 U.S. companies, are often not advertised anywhere else on the web or in print and do not include any duplicate job listings. LinkUp does not publish any job listings from 3rd party intermediaries such as staffing companies, search firms, or headhunters and we’ve very intentionally kept the site free from annoying advertising.

Perhaps most importantly, the jobs are always current because they are removed from LinkUp whenever the employer removes them from their own corporate web site. LinkUp does not allow people to publish jobs directly on the site itself so there is absolutely no risk of identity theft and there are no work-at-home scams like you’d find on many job boards around the web today. Because the listings are often two-pages in length, with excellent information to search on, the search results users get from LinkUp are absolutely unparalleled. And finally, there are a ton of innovative features (tabbed browsing, for example) that allow LinkUp to deliver a highly unique, extremely user-friendly experience. It is, simply, the best national job board on the web today.

One of the recent changes we have made in examining LinkUp jobs classifieds data is to report the number of new and total jobs listed on the site by job category and compare them to the previous month. As the chart below indicates, the 3 categories that showed the largest gains in August were Education & Training, Engineering & Architecture, and Technology. Combined, those 3 categories accounted for an increase of 11,403 new job openings on the company web sites being aggregated on LinkUp.com. In terms of declines in new and total job openings, Banking & Financial Services, Sales & Business Development, and Admin & Clerical showed the largest declines.

LinkUp.com aggregates job listings that employers post on their own corporate web site. These job listings or openings are often not advertised anywhere else on the web or in print. As well, the aggregated data, pulled from  9,713 companies of all sizes and in all industries throughout the U.S., does not include any duplicate job listings. But while the data presents a high-quality, unique, and relevant snapshot of the nation’s employment picture, it is not meant to represent the exact number of job openings in any given category. The vast majority of companies in the U.S. do not list their job openings on their company web site, if they even have a corporate web site, and LinkUp is still accumulating data from new companies being included in the data set. (LinkUp’s job data in July included 8,307 companies – 1,406 fewer than the total number of companies included in August’s numbers. This increase in companies being aggregated certainly has an impact on the comparison to July’s numbers).

August employment figures are not scheduled to be released until Friday morning, but if LinkUp data provides any type of early indicator, the nation’s employment picture continued to worsen in August. The number of total job openings posted on corporate web sites dropped 3% from July, while the total number of new openings posted showed no increase at all. While the percentage declines are smaller than they have been in recent months, the overall employment picture remains quite bleak. LinkUp.com aggregates and publishes job listings pulled directly from 9,713 corporate web sites from around the U.S.

In August, a total of 919,833 positions were listed on corporate web sites, down from 947,745 in July and 991,804 in June. Of those job listings, 695,879 were new positions, virtually unchanged from July. Unlike July’s numbers, when over 25% of the decline in total jobs were accounted for by California alone, August’s sharp decline in total jobs was evenly distributed among roughly a dozen states, with Illinois losing the most jobs (4,266). Connecticut showed the largest increase in both total job postings and new job postings, rising by 2,825 total job listings and 3,284 new job listings.

LinkUp.com aggregates job listings that employers post on their own corporate web site. These job listings or openings are often not advertised anywhere else on the web or in print. As well, the aggregated data, pulled from  9,713 companies of all sizes and in all industries throughout the U.S., does not include any duplicate job listings. But while the data presents a high-quality, unique, and relevant snapshot of the nation’s employment picture, it is not meant to represent the exact number of job openings in any given state. The vast majority of companies in the U.S. do not list their job openings on their company web site, if they even have a corporate web site, and LinkUp is still accumulating data from new companies being included in the data set. (LinkUp’s job data in July included 8,307 companies – 1,406 fewer than the total number of companies included in August’s numbers. This increase in the number of companies being factored into the data most likely resulted in a less negative snapshot than was actually the case throughout the country in August).

Thanks, by the way, to Small Business Information Technology Weekly for the excellent review of LinkUp.

Mirroring the figures released by the Department of Labor last week, data released by LinkUp.com on Monday provided further evidence that the nation’s jobs picture deteriorated substantially in July. The number of total job openings posted on corporate web sites dropped 4% from June, while the total number of new openings posted dropped 2%. Even more alarming, only 10 states in the nation showed an increase in the number of total jobs posted, and only 15 states showed an increase in the number of new positions listed. LinkUp.com aggregates and publishes job listings pulled directly from 8,307 corporate web sites from around the U.S.

In July, a total of 947,745 positions were listed on corporate web sites, down from 991,804 in June. Of those job listings, 694,392 were new positions, down from 706,111 new positions listed in June. Over 25% of the decline in total jobs was accounted for by California alone, which saw a decrease of 11,937 total job postings. Maryland showed the largest increase in both total job postings and new job postings, rising by 1,735 total job listings and 2,156 new job listings.

On August 1st, the Department of Labor reported that the nation’s unemployment rate rose to 5.7% in July from 5.5% in June with a total of 51,000 jobs eliminated during the month. For the year, a total of 463,000 jobs have been shed by employers throughout the country. Figures for May and June were revised slightly upward, with 26,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported. (See related analysis here).

LinkUp.com aggregates job listings that employers post on their own corporate web site. These job listings or openings are often not advertised anywhere else on the web or in print. As well, the aggregated data, pulled from  8,307 companies of all sizes and in all industries throughout the U.S., does not include any duplicate job listings. But while the data presents a high-quality, unique, and relevant snapshot of the nation’s employment picture, it is not meant to represent the exact number of job openings in any given state. The vast majority of companies in the U.S. do not list their job openings on their company web site, if they even have a corporate web site, and LinkUp is still accumulating data from new companies being included in the data set.