Job Search Engine - a new definition
Why is this definition necessary?
The current definitions of "job search engine" are just plain wrong and bad.
Humans get it wrong - Many people do not understand what a job search engine really is. This likely stems from the fact that job search engines are new or that too many websites have intra-site search technology causing confusion.
Search engines only understand the inputs they receive from humans, and by this fact the major search engines like Google and Bing take the mass confusion and infer this information democratically as if it were correct information. The search engines, thus, misunderstand all of the signals that human erroneously push on the web for their absorption.
Web-based encyclopedias are poor quality. These sites are human-edited and user-generated, to date, and aren't managed by editors with intimate knowledge in the subject matters of specific pages. Sites like Wikipedia are well known for offer a great breadth of basic information, but barely suffice when specific information or matters requiring a judgement call are needed. Site editors typically spend their time combating spam by those attempting to manipulate their pages in their favor instead of verifying fact or judge right from wrong.
Many website operators create this confusion on purpose. Much confusion stems from the fact that many sites intentionally mislabel their own products as job search engines. Job boards, Employment sites and even company career sites sometimes label themselves as a search engine for jobs. This is often done innocently in that the site operator believes that by creating an intra-site search function they've built a search engine. This believe also is false - would Google be a web search engine if it only search Google help pages? Would Bing be a web search engine if it only searched Microsoft pages? No.
The experts get it wrong too. Even authorities in matters related to job search are often guilty of the same. A recent About.com article listed several "niche job search engines" yet several of the sites on named in this post are not search engines at all... they are sites that offer search functionality.
Over the next week, I will propose a new definition for job search engine - I'll also detail the functionality that I feel is required for a site to call itself a "job search engine" by this new definition - and I'll post articles here that refute the definitions that many use.
(Updated)
Posted: 6/14/2010 9:30 AM EST by Tim Dineen
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| A new defintion for "Job Search Engine" is necessary.
Many do not understand what a job search engine really is.
Out of this initial human misunderstanding, services such as search engines (Google, Bing) or web-based encylopedias are also led astray. |
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