Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

I made some predictions for 2007. Let’s see how I did.

1. MySpace wins. Facebook loses.
Man, how much crow can one man eat? The gang at MySpace would disagree, but there’s no doubt this was the Year of Facebook. Just ask MySpace owner Rupert Murdoch. Most impressively, FB has everyone – including Google – on their heels copying the social network’s success. Next trick: The killer app for making some serious coin.
Verdict: Wrong

2. We figure out what Jobster wants to be when it grows up.
Silly sideshows aside, the only thing we really learned is the company doesn’t want its founder around anymore. Get ready for the 2008 fire sale.
Verdict: Wrong

3. The rise of the wiki.
A bit of a toss-up. No one can deny the success of Wikipedia. Even Google’s doing it. However, niche wikis failed to take off. My own has been a fun experiment that I’ll keep around, churning out content, but hardly ready for prime time. Niche social networks, made easy by solutions like Ning, were a far better story in ‘07.
Verdict: Toss-up

4. Get a Second Life!
Second Life sucks. The end.
Verdict: Wrong

5. Indeed.com: Steady as she goes.
I wrote, “Growth and success remain a constant for Indeed in ‘07, more so than its competition, by staying true to its original mission and format.” Head of nail, meet hammer.
Verdict: Right

6. The Big Three go big ‘bulge.’
I’m not even sure exactly what I meant by this prediction. I’ll blame it on a New Year’s hangover.
Verdict: Huh?

7. Verticals crack Google’s Top Ten for “jobs.”
Both Indeed and Simply Hired had their time in the Top Ten. Today, Simply Hired enjoys the high ranking for our industry’s most searched term, thanks to MySpace, with Indeed close behind.
Verdict: Right

8. Recruiting bloggers go prime time.
There were some really nice success stories in the blogosphere in ‘07. Ad dollars are flowing and investors are investing. Unfortunately, I must have missed such stories in the employment arena.
Verdict: Wrong

9. Google will show-up to a major HR conference.
Google showed up to a few. The question is, Will they repeat in ‘08?
Verdict: Right

10. Hands off my content.
I really thought more job sites would make a statement and shut off the scraping of jobs on their sites, a la Craigslist. With the exception of Monster in Canada, ‘07 has been status quo.
Verdict: Wrong

Honorable mentions: I did pretty well here. Search marketing is catching on with employers. Companies are doing a decent job leveraging some Web 2.0 options, particularly in the realm of video. And Goldberg is out at Jobster.

So, I’m batting about .500, which is a lot better than ‘06. But, more importantly, I had fun. Stay tuned for ‘08 predictions, coming soon.

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