Cheezhead

It’s official. The .jobs domain is now a reality.

There is so much I have to say about this that I don’t know where to start, but here are a few immediate thoughts:

1. Don’t underestimate the potential of this occurrence greatly putting the current Internet recruiting industry on its head.
2. Employers will actually have to buy into this idea and promote these URLs in order to achieve success. HR people have a major herd mentality, so the early adopters are going to have to buy into this idea and spread the virus.
3. Job seekers will have to get used to using .jobs when searching employment opportunities (see No. 2).
4. Signing-up and buying the domain will need to be incredibly easy, so a non-technical person can obtain a .jobs domain.
5. The .jobs folks need to start lobbying Google and selling them on the relevancy of URLs with .jobs as opposed to .com-type domains. For example, .edu and .gov domains carry greater weight on Google because of their guaranteed relevance. If the .jobs domain carries similar weight, the game really changes.
6. The data is going to have to stay pure. If engineering.jobs, marketing.jobs, etc. ever get sold in conjunction with statefarm.jobs, .jobs will have no greater benefit than a .net.
7. Employ Media, the organization managing the .jobs domain, will need to police submissions efficiently and effectively.
8. The cost will need to keep out potential spammers.
9. It increases the significance of the corporate career center as the destination site for job seekers, as opposed to other mediums like job sites.
10. Search engines are primed to become king of the job search process.

That’s a quick brain dump. I’m sure I’ll have more as things unfold, but I’ve been waiting for this moment for awhile and can’t overemphasize the importance of this event in greatly changing how recruitment advertising is done - both online and offline.