March 27, 2006

The Jobby Experiment

Michael Arrington

49 comments »

I’ve been testing out a new (in beta) Ajax Job site called Jobby this evening. Unlike other web 2.0 job sites like Indeed and Simply Hired (which aggregate job listings from around the web), Jobby takes information directly from job seekers, and then focuses on helping recruiters filter through job qualifications fast via tagging and tag filtering. The results are quite stunning and I can easily see other services (not necessarily in the job space) copying some of these features (Ajaxian says its “combines a solid combination of interface and functionality”).

For a job seeker, you input basic information about yourself and you have the option of uploading a resume (a nice touch would be to allow a pointer to resume sites, like Linkedin). You then add tags about your qualifications and availability. I added “techcrunch” and “web 2.0″ - for some reason I couldn’t add a tag “blogging”. For qualification tags, you also set your level of knowledge to “newbie”, “skilled” or “advanced”. The interface is exceptional and you don’t have to do more than click a couple of times on a tag cloud to set up tags. You’ll have to try it to fully understand how it works.

Job seekers also have the ability to post a summary of their qualifications directly to another website.

For recruiters, searching is very easy and filter based. Tags are shown and the recruiter simply checks the tag and level of experience desired, along with geographic information and availability. Each additional filter narrows the result set of candidates. A RSS feed is available for each search, so recruiters can keep on top of new candidates.

There’s a problem with Jobby. There are so many job sites out there that it will be very hard for them to get traction, and there is no real virality to the service.

However, the ability for recruiters to set, at virtually no time cost, highly specific filtered searches for exactly the candidate they are looking for means they will likely use it. And if recruiters start using it, expect job seekers to flow there as well.

Anyone building a new web company with search features should take a look and consider, cough, copying their interface. It’s really exceptional.

  • Sphere It

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. The Crisscross News
  2. GoJobby Blog » Blog Archive » Any domain name that isn’t taken by now is pure and utter crap… Literally
  3. TechCrunch on Jobby » Solution Watch
  4. MonReal: diario profesional de David Monreal sobre Recursos Humanos y reclutamiento online
  5. Basic Thinking Blog » Jobby: Schönes Beispiel für einfache Bedienung
  6. Dylan Hunter
  7. MyGlobalCity » You’re… Hired - Job Seeking In The Global Village
  8. tag cloud interface for list selection (hello Jobby!) at disambiguity
  9. Zoli's Blog
  10. GoJobby Blog » Blog Archive » Jobby featured in TechCrunch, recruiting.com
  11. somewhere in… colourful moments » Digg PHP’s Scalability and Performance
  12. JavaStation Builder NetWork 2006 » Digg PHP’s Scalability and Performance
  13. TechCrunch » Blog Archive » Jobster To Acquire (two month old) Jobby
  14. BiZwiKi.CN - 喧闹 PK 噪音 » Blog Archive » (两个月大)小Jobby被2000万美元收购
  15. Web 2.0 - Что нового? » Jobster собирается купить двухмесячного Jobby
  16. XOOPS CHINA - WordPress » Digg PHP’s Scalability and Performance
  17. TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Jobster (たった2ヶ月の)Jobbyを買収
  18. Bloglish - Let your weblog speaks to all » WeatherBill Launches, Announces All Star Investors
  19. Rescue Time: Automated Time Management meets Web 2.0
  20. Multimedias.mobi » Rescue Time: Automated Time Management meets Web 2.0
  21. RescueTime Blog Web Biz: How to have 4,000 Users Waiting When You Launch «
  22. techcrunch » Blog Archive » Rescue Time: Automated Time Management meets Web 2.0
  23. WeatherBill Launches, Announces All Star Investors

Comments

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  1. Reid Levy

    Impressive twist to the normal job websites. I think this will be a great tool for HR.

  2. Mark Devlin

    “Jobby”(TM) means “turd” in Scottish.

    http://www.urbandictionary.com.....term=Jobby

    Didn’t they do a Google search?

    Priceless.

  3. Doug Mehus

    Interestingly, “jobby” is what my grandma used to describe going to the bathroom to do the Number Two (i.e., poop) when I was a youngster. Suffice it to say, I hadn’t thought of the word used as the brand name for an ajax-based job recruiting Web site. “Jobby” has somewhat of a negative connotation to me, now. ;)

    Ciao,
    Doug M.

    P.S. TechCrunch seems to have usurped John Battelle’s Searchblog as the must-read daily blog staple of all things search and Web 2.0, likely because of the business profiles, something John has stopped mostly in favour of long-winded, expository essays and shameless self-promotion. So, great for TechCrunch! Keep up the good writing, Mike! :)

  4. Tony Wright

    No, don’t tell them to steal our interface!

    Thanks for the writeup. We’re concerned about traction, but heck… The search engine market was crowded when Google rolled on the scene.

    We also have a developing feature that will allow recruiters and HR departments to create their own Jobby instance (themed and with their own categories and tags).

    On the Scottish front… Wow. Should we change the name? :-)

  5. Paul Montgomery

    I look forward to such future startups as Cowpat, Dungr and RawSewage being profiled on DrekCrunch.

    I have a new slogan for you guys, Tony:
    Jobby - putting the number 2.0 into the Web.

  6. Paul Montgomery

    Oh, and having a robot mascot is so lame.

    /me whistles…

  7. Michael Arrington

    Paul, when in the hell is your startup launching? :-)

  8. Dave McClure

    pretty neat little app.

    congrats Tony… nice job :)

  9. Robert

    Tony, I think Jobby is currently in the American market, so don’t worry about the name…

    Still, it would be great marketing to countries where “jobby” is considered shit … At least they will think of your company every day (or maybe more with the regular use of Metamucil) ;-)

    Keep up the good work though…

  10. Jason L. Baptiste

    Awesome. This is going to help expand our technical team by finding an awesome hacker, I can feel it. Tony, I’d love to get something going on with jobby and uGather when we launch in the next couple of weeks to help drive traffic to you guys. Great work!

    -Jason L. Baptiste

  11. Neil MacLean

    Seriously Tony, change the name!
    The link between jobby and excrement in some cultures is so tightly bound it can only lead to an indelible stain on your service.
    The only alternative is to use it in your marketing: “Are you a freelance type or do you go for a regular jobby?”

  12. Bas

    This site looks very good, the search works very easy aswell.
    The only thing I noticed though, is that the HTML coding is very poor.

  13. Paul Montgomery

    Geez, the pressure is on. Soon, I promise!

  14. Amyloo

    > Tony, I think Jobby is currently in the American market, so don’t worry about the name…

    I’d worry. It was my babyhood term for poop and I grew up in Michigan.

  15. Saul Weiner

    I love the filter and rss feed. For a company that wants the best, this could be useful. Hopefully they can get skilled candidates to sign up.

  16. ParadiseFound

    Hah! Being of Scottish extraction I laughed so much I nearly fell off my Aeron. Especially when I saw the ‘build your own jobby’ section on their site - can’t you just do that by consuming vast quantities of guinness?
    Jobby guys (even that makes me laugh) - you need to change your domain and company name toute de suite. You will be the laughing stock of the web, whether you are US-centric or not.

  17. Jayme

    My project that i talked to you about in an e-mail, and you not answered me, its about it !!! a resumé site !!! with this tecnologies … i was reealy disapointed with the site and you attitude after that !!!

  18. Geof Harries

    Change the name before it’s too late - seriously. The sooner the better.

  19. James Archer

    I’ve been really impressed with Jobby so far. It’s only just come online, and I’ve already found some very promising candidates. I’m definitely excited to see how things go once it catches on.

    As far as the name goes, I personally wouldn’t worry about it too much. So it means poop; so what? If anything, that’ll make it even more memorable. It creates a story behind the brand.

    Unprofessional? Didn’t stop Monster, Yahoo, Google….

  20. James Archer

    I will say, though, that they really should add RSS feeds for search results. I’d love to be able to keep an eye on certain searches so I can snap up new talent.

  21. Tony Wright

    RSS feeds are a feature that is now implemented. You can do a search, run a few filters, then RSS the results. Hope that helps!

  22. Dan Tudor

    In 1976, “I’m sorry” would be expected and not rewarded by existing or new customers. It wouldn’t have generated any news.

    In 2006, 30 years later, “I’m sorry” means gaining respect, gaining customers, getting sales leads, and improving your corporate image and getting you talked about on the blogosphere. It generates LOTS of news.

    My question: Why don’t more businesses say “I’m sorry”? So few do these days that you are bound to stand-out when you do.

  23. leisa.reichelt

    “Jobby - putting the number 2.0 into the Web”

    Bless. That’s precious.
    You must use it.

  24. lewis

    jobby in the uk means shit

  25. scotland1!!

    im from scotland and jobby does mean turd

  26. scotland1!!

    DALE COLLINS is a god in scotland