Predictions

Predictions

by Dennis Yang




Yahoo Turns Up The Heat On HotJobs With Free Listings

from the free-at-last dept

Yahoo! is not afraid to look profitable business models in the face and then give them away for free. Last month, in an attempt to revitalize a lagging auctions site, Yahoo! Auctions dropped all fees from its auctions. Today, Yahoo! HotJobs announced that it will scrape job listings from employer web sites and list them for free. This is the first time one of the leading job sites (the others being Monster and CareerBuilder) will feature free listings in its service. The paid inclusion model has always been a difficult model to sustain, since if listers decide not to pay, it directly affects the quality of the user experience. It will be very interesting to see if HotJobs can continue to offer some level of "premium" service to its paid listers to prevent them from dropping down to the free level. Yahoo! understands that user experience is key, and in the search game, be it auctions or jobs, comprehensiveness is key. Some may view this move as desperation, but providing a better user experience better and taking business away from competitors with a more complete offering doesn't seem so desperate, does it?

5 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
 

Reader Comments

(Flattened / Threaded)

    Jul 12th, 2005 @ 7:42pm
  • quality will be poor

    by nonuser

    When I was looking for work I found the lowest quality of job listings were the ones posted directly on company web sites. It doesn't cost them anything to run them and their managers get to kick the tires. When the company's prospects start souring and all the open reqs are pulled, they'll often "forget" to take down those web site posts, probably to make outsiders think things are going just swell.
    I found the highest quality to be those on monster.com, because they charge the most! The employers on that site are generally serious about hiring.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    • Jul 13th, 2005 @ 12:08am
    • Re: quality will be poor

      by mhh5

      hmm. Yahoo isn't just mixing it all together, though. You can filter out all the "scraped" job listings...

      (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

    Jul 13th, 2005 @ 4:21am
  • time

    by soy

    i see it still needs to sink in IT FREEEEE
    and thats a GOOD thing ! as for the mixing give them some time

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Jul 13th, 2005 @ 5:21am
  • Already got it: indeed.com

    by Anonymous Coward

    The website indeed.com is already doing this, and with great success. I set up a search, and have it delivered with RSS (I'm actively looking for a new job.) Their listings are very complete, and the search is google-like (hmm, wonder who they want to be bought by...)

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

  • Apr 6th, 2006 @ 11:52am
  • by joe recruiter

    "Free"= lower quality. Its simple really.

    (reply to this comment) (link to this comment)

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