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Beyond slick design, data mining, the latest technology and advertising hype, Recruiting is all about people getting to know each other. It's about shared interests, favors and referrals. The best Online Recruiting involves supporting human networks with technology, not vice versa. It's the hitters, not the hits.

From time to time, we revisit "Craig's List" (now known as "the List Foundation"). Begun as a pet project of a local techie, the List Foundation is the secret centerpiece of cutting edge San Francisco Bay area recruiting. The simple format and simpler advertising belies the fact that the people who are involved in the process know each other (more or less).

Take a long look at this photo essay from CMP. This is real online integrated recruiting in action. It works because it combines the best of both worlds rather than pretending that they are mutually exclusive.

Headhunter Tidbits

the finest and most unique Natural Bone products available. We keep our overhead costs low. and pass that savings directly on to our customers. I believe that you will find our prices the most competitive on the market. All of the specimens we offer are legally obtained, and no animals are killed just for their skulls or horns.

At Headhunter, Inc is a company that manufactures marine sanitation systems (heads)

Over the past 12 years, Headhunter products have been installed in thousands of luxury yachts, sport fishermen, commercial fishing and work boats, military craft, floating casinos, and even custom buses.

We also ran across HeadHunter Helmets (the best hands free video system for extreme sports) which stuck us as a remarkably useful innovation in the marketplace. Good for dealing with those combative slow-pays.

See how Head Hunter Helmets can assist you with capturing your most incredible extreme experiences to share them with the people who just never would believe!.

Head-hunter.com is home to a delightful collection

...of ethnographic material related to head hunting, cannibalism, sideshows, oddities and curiosities. Where exhibits of traditional and contemporary cultures excite the imagination and open doors to greater understanding of indigenous peoples around the world.

All of these gems help us understand why Schwartz & Associates are able to get a way with such a modest offering and why the big free job posting board appears to be doing alright. Finally, we discovered what has to be the perfect picture of an active job hunter in this market at Headhunter.org.

All in all, our web tour of headhunter sites helps us believe that the outdated term is nicely headed for the circular file.

Recruiting Gumbo

Today's artificially low pricing has everyone scrambling to find new business models. It is entirely predictable that companies in the old media business will migrate towards Recruiting. The other side of the coin is that companies in the old Recruiting businesses will feel a downward pressure on their pricing structures. The web forces them to migrate towards the publishing business.

So, what do you see?

Last week, we talked about a couple of interesting developments. The two major advertising companies in our business (Hodes and TMP) are in the midst of migrating towards web content providers. They get traffic. The content providers get more content. CareerPath, the monster database of old-school newspaper advertising, joined the parade.

Somewhere in the newspaper industry, a venerable old-timer is wondering how in the world things have changed to the point that newspapers are paying to have their ads carried elsewhere. The traditional journalistic distinction between advertising and editorial content, the subject of heady talk-show debates, has been subverted by key players at the heart of the business.While reporters and press club presidents whine about the decay of "professional" journalism, the publishing department is out peddling advertising as content.

We think this is good, natural, and the next step forward.

Our hands down favorite from the old-media business is the Wall Street Journal's Career Section. Capitalizing on Junglee's technical engine, they produce the richest (from a job hunter's perspective) advertising content anywhere. They've recently joined the parade towards blurring the distinctions between Recruiters and Publishers. Visit the site! They've co-branded the ill-conceived Futurestep (Korn-Ferry's reinvention of the broken Intellimatch wheel).

Any great chef creates some nasty-tasting experiments on the way to a new recipe. Evaluating the results during the experimentation process might lead you to think that the chef is incapable of making an edible stew. We think that the Korn-WSJ partnership merits celebration. Not because it's a tasty gumbo but because it portends the possibility of a rich cuisine.

Legal Recruiting

As we've often observed, if you want to see meaningful technical innovation, look at the low end of the business. Legal Recruiting, like high-end Executive Placement, tends to be blinded by retainers and tradition. In addition, the "glut" of legal talent slows the urgency applied to Electronic Tools.

Here are the players in pure Legal Recruiting. As a class, they tend to be primitive, under-designed and tentative. Over the next eighteen months, the area will explode and grow in sophistication. We're keeping our eyes on it.