Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

Don’t hate the player. Hate the game.

If you’re a hater of vertical job search, well, that’s just too bad. As of today, the three major niche players in the vertical job search game – WorkZoo, SimplyHired and Indeed – have either been acquired by bigger fish or have gotten their pockets fattened via love from some major sugar daddies.

• Jobster snatched-up WorkZoo a few weeks ago.

• Last week, SimplyHired announced an injection of capital from some of the West Coast’s biggest names, including Guy Kawasaki (Garage.com and former Apple dude), Rajeev Motwani (Google advisor) and Ron Conway (early Google, AskJeeves investor). The investment was for $3 million.

• Today, Indeed announced that newspaper giant The New York Times is now an investor. Along with Union Square Ventures and Allen & Company, LLC, The Times is putting in $5 million for a minority stake.

Here are a few thoughts on the above, as well as some general opinion:

1. Vertical job search has officially moved beyond sideshow status.
2. I don’t think we’ve heard the last from WorkZoo. I expect interesting things via their marriage to Jobster.
3. SimplyHired’s Google-investor connection and link to Silicon Valley seems to put them in the catbird seat of a high-profile acquisition sometime down the line … not necessarily Google, but this would be a great buy for an engine like AskJeeves, MSN, Amazon’s A9 or AOL.
4. Indeed getting in bed with The Times is a bold move for the newspaper and is probably the most intriguing deal of the three. A quick glance at The Times’ online offerings reveals a lot of opportunity to plug-in some nice job content quickly, which translates into ad revenue. I’ll be watching this relationship closely, as I think it has less chance of being flipped to a bigger buyer. The Times may be in for the long haul.
5. The Times would be wise to integrate Indeed’s content into its About.com property immediately.
6. I expect this whole thing to go from nice conversation piece to full-blown Clash of the Titans within the next 12-18 mos. (This time without Harry Hamlin.)
7. Keep an eye on .jobs … and eBay and Craigslist.
8. Keep an eye on Microsoft. They still own the desktops of pretty much every corporate entity in the world. If they can somehow integrate talent sourcing into their software, watch out.
9. Sucks to be Monster.
10. Did I mention vertical job search has officially moved beyond sideshow status?

In short, the night is still young for the vertical job search craze, but the joint is hoppin’. There are a lot of tunes left to be spun and a lot of remixes we haven’t heard yet. But, for the here and now, vertical job search is the biggest, baddest, sexiest ‘playa’ in ‘da club.’

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