Toolkit Addition

ToolKit: WebMole

There are some very high powered tools available around the web. One that we suggest you take a look at is called WebMole. WebMole will spider the web for email addresses and send a personalized note from you to each address it finds.

To use Webmole, you simply "feed it" a list of URLs and a boilerplate email message. It will proceed to digest all of th links you pointed it towards. It will also gather the links on those links and the links on those links. You can feed it the results of an AltaVista or HotBot search. You can feed it a listing of resume addresses or you can feed it a list of home pages from one of the free Home Page collections.

WebMole identifies email addresses and dedupes the list while it's working.

There are several caveats. First and foremost, your ISP is liable to think that your use of this tool is spamming. (We're not so sure and are tempted to believe that a posted resume is a request for email. But, you might run into problems.) Second, the search and extract process is very intense. Running WebMole will require a dedicated machine. In fact, the company has built mechanisms so that you can run WebMole on several dedicated machines simultaneously.

The company will let you download an evaluation copy. It's not much use as an emailing tool because the mail functions and address deduping are disabled. You can watch it work and get a sense of its capabilities. We were able to generate about 200 email addresses per hour in our tests.

If you can navigate the peculiarities of contemporary email etiquette, WebMole may be the tool that accelerates your recruiting program.

Search Tips

Search Tip: Alexa

We try not to offer highly qualified recommendations for your search tools. We'd generally prefer to give you sound advice about tools that are known to work. We're making an exception in the case of Alexa.

Alexa is a piece of software that you use while using your Internet Browser (Netscape or Internet Explorer). It displays yet another toolbar a the bottom of your screen. The company behind Alexa tries to keep an integrate database of site ownership and traffic statistics. You can access this data (along with Alexa's recommendations for similar sites to visit and ratings) from the toolbar.

Our recommendation is qualified because the information provided by Alexa isn't always right. Generally speaking, it's better as an idea that it is as a tool. But, if you're looking for small sites to use as recruiting platforms, as we suggest in the seminars. Alexa may help you get in direct contact with the site owners faster than other methods.

So, when you visit the proverbial "Bubba's Left Handed Astrophysicist's Website", having Alexa along for the ride could be quite useful. You'll get an imperfect but possibly interesting view of the site's traffic and access to ownership information. Use the data with some caution.

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