Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

When Google launched its IM product, Google Talk, some months ago, it was welcomed with a rather lackadaisical response.

Yawn … been there, done that. AOL’s been doing this for how long? Welcome to the party, Google.

Google’s IM solution is simple, has little of the bells and whistles its competition deploys, and integrates a VoIP offering that enables voice communications, PC to PC.

So what, right?

Well, Google has recently enabled users to archive their IM conversations voluntarily, as well as integrate Talk into its popular Gmail service.

So what again, right?

Here’s the point: Google serves advertising based on the content of e-mails, which it also archives. Therefore, it’s realistic to think that similar advertising will be served to users based on archived Talk conversations.

For me, IM has become much more personal than e-mail. I ping my wife, close friends and family much more often than e-mailing them. As a result, conversations tend to be more heartfelt and open.

It’s life talk. And what’s more ‘life talk’ than discussing employment. Imagine all the people IM’ing right now about how they hate their job, want to get a new job, hate their boss, want to work at so-and-so competitor, are getting ready to graduate in May, are just looking to get into a new situation, whatever.

Additionally, imagine conversations revolving around industry-specific topics. For example, search engine optimization and marketing (yeah, I know, snooze alert!) tends to be a common thread in my communications. Wouldn’t that information help make me a better candidate for an SEO job opening?

I’m sure you see where I’m going with this: Another great opportunity to get in front of passive (and active) job seekers, compliments of Google.

For their next trick? Throw in the fact that Google will also be able to archive voice communications via its VoIP solution, and you can feel free to take the above scenario to a whole new level.

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