Recruiting is getting harder. And, the crap ratios are increasing. Wading through the increasing torrent of near-information is becoming a real challenge.

Blogging, Social Network Recruiting and Referral Systems all point to new ways of thinking and being in our industry and outside of it.

At the end of this article is a list of some (96) of the most interesting blogs we follow. (Do let us know if you feel left out or if we missed you). If you gave each one five minutes a day, you would be reading them all week. RSS Feeds (like ours) can give you some relief and efficiency in gobbling up the material. But, there's got to be a limit..

In general, this is a problem with new technologies. Somewhere on the adoption/absorption curve, things get overwhelming just before they get clear. Too much of a good thing usually results in innovations that tame the beast. The hard part is waiting for them to arrive.

Over at Recruiting.com, awareness of the noise factor is so intense that they are discussing ways to "Game the System". In short, a group of bloggers think that by banding together, they can make the search engines favor the blogs in their collective. It's a remarkable idea that will probably work. Sadly, it brings an end to one of the foundational ideas of blogging....that an isolated blogger can create an audience without resorting to the same book of tricks always used to create an audience.

Heather Leigh, our colleague at Microsoft weighs in with a smart perspective:

...Shouldn't the approach be: "here's a link to my blog, which I thought you might be interested in" (and let the reader decide if they want to link) versus "if you link to my blog, I'll link to yours".

The thing is, blogs are all about credibility. If I read a blog and they link to a bunch of blogs that don't have good content, I think "what the?". The links might get people there in the first place but without good content, they won't come back. So what is the point other than tricking the search engines.

Why would you want a blog without good content linking to you anyway? The key is to write good content that gets the attention of influential bloggers (not bloggers hurting for traffic) that find your writing interesting enough to share with their readers.

The Blogging collective (or link swap) aims to create readership by networking rather than by content delivery. While that's a little harsh, the game is agreed upon cross-promotion (or in common parlance, a cartel). The argument put forth by the folks at Recruiting.com is that a cartel will ensure quality of the content. That's roughly the "What's good for GM is good for the country mindset."

It's wonderfully American to see folks using their entrepreneurial skills to beat the existing system. Once it becomes clear that your access to blogged information is a function of who is smart enough to beat the search engines, blogs will be clearly seen as just another information source. Ultimately, the approach stifles growth in favor of the existing players.

Here's the list of blogs.

• Andrew's Strategic Resourcing Blog
• Asia Pacific Headhunter
• Being Bold Blog
• Blog Indeed
• Blogger-Jobs.com
• Blogging outside the box
• Blue Sky Resumes Blog
• bnoopy - Joe Kraus
• Boston Works HR Blog
• But Less About Me...
• CalNational Bank Blog
• Canadian Headhunter
• CareerJournal
• CareerXroads Annex
• Cenek Report
• CEO Blogger's Club
• Changing Reality on the NET
• cheezhead
• CollegeRecruiter.com Blog
• Employment Digest
• EXCELER8ion
• Future of Work Weblog
• Gautam Ghosh on Management
• George's Employment Blawg
• GoodRecruits
• Guerrilla Job Hunting
• Heather's "Marketing at Microsoft" Blog
• Hire Calling
• Hiring Rainmakers
• Hiring Revolution
• Hiring Technical People
• HR Blog
• HR for the leader in you
• HR Lori
• HR Technology Discussion Board
• HRmarketer
• HR's Brand New Experience
• Human Capital and Technology Blog
• Human Resources Blog
• Hunt Scanlon
• Impinj Blog
• It's the Recruiting, Stupid!
• Jeremy Langhans
• Jim Stroud 2.0 - I recruit, therefore I am.
• Job Search Engine Guide
• Job Seekers Revenge
• Jobs In Search
• jobster blog
• JobStuff
• JobSyntax Blog
• JobThreadBlog
• Lefkow Zone
• Magic Pot of Jobs
• Martin Snyder's Passing Scene
• Microsoft Marketing Recruiting Blog
• Microsoft Technical Recruiting Blog
• Miles from the Curb
• MN Headhunter
• Monster Blog
• My HR Blog
• myzeek
• New Workforce - The Weblog of New Equities
• Occupational Adventure (sm)
• On Talent Blog
• Online Recruitment Blog
• Recruiter Illuminati
• Recruiting Animal
• Recruiting Animal
• Recruiting Edge
• Recruiting Revolution
• Recruiting.com
• Recruiting: Good, Bad & Ugly
• ReferNet
• Resourcing Strategies
• Resume Wiki
• Robb's Ramblings
• Ross' Arbitration Blog
• Secrets of the Job Hunt - Job hunting advice blog
• Selection Matters dot com
• Siliconvalleyjobs.com Blog
• SimplyBlog
• Staffing.org
• Startupjobs.com Blog
• StlRecruiting
• stone
• systematicHR - Human Resources Strategy and Human Resources Technology
• talent bloggers ~ the world of wireless recruiting
• Talent in China
• Talent Management Solutions - Taleo Blog
• Talentism
• Talking Talent
• Technical Careers @ Microsoft
• Thai Head Hunter
• The Desk
• Venture Blog
• Xtreme Recruiting