Job seekers flock to Indeed's new search engine Source: Richard Lee
A Stamford-based job search aggregator has started its own search engine, going head-to-head with long-established online employment boards.
Indeed Resume, developed by Indeed.com, went live this month and is already a vastly popular option for job seekers.
"We have more than a million resumes on Indeed Resume, with more than 10,000 new resumes uploaded each day," said Chris Hyams, vice president of product. "We had tens of thousands of new users in the first few days since launching Indeed Resume search."
With a national unemployment rate at 9.1 percent, it is not surprising that the search engine has been so popular, according to Nick Perna, chief economist for Webster Bank and an economics lecturer at Yale University.
"You've got people out there who have been pounding the bricks for years to get a job," said Perna, a Ridgefield resident.
Although the recession that started in December 2007 is officially over, the unemployment rate remains high, he said.
"We've regained only one of the five jobs we lost, and there are new people coming into the workforce," Perna said, comparing the reception the new search engine has received to the opening of a business. "It's no different than a new store putting up a sign saying `Now hiring.' "
Unlike the subscription-only resume databases of job boards, Indeed Resume is an open search engine. Searching for resumes is free and unrestricted and does not require an account. Employers can contact job seekers for free during the "beta period."
"With no up-front costs or per-seat licenses, Indeed Resume is for everyone from the small business owner looking to make one hire to the Fortune 500 company filling thousands of openings," Hyams said, adding that the search engine gives job seekers control over their own personal information by protecting their email address and telephone number until they choose to reveal them. "We have a zero tolerance policy for spam and provide job seekers the ability to block unwanted messages."
As a job search aggregator, Indeed.com provides job seekers free access to employment opportunities from thousands of company websites and job boards. Available in more than 50 countries, it has more than 50 million unique visitors and 1 billion job searches per month.
Indeed Resume is being promoted among Indeed.com users.
Searching for and viewing resumes is free, and during an extended beta period contacting candidates also is free. The company will be announcing pricing details soon.
Forrester Research recently issued a market overview on the enterprise search business, evaluating 12 search vendors and concluded that the industry still has challenges in terms of pricing.
"In the next few years, we expect prices to rise as specialized vendors wax poetic on the transformative power of search in order to distinguish their products from Google and Microsoft FAST Search for Sharepoint," Forrester reported. "Over time, Forrester expects that specialized vendors will settle into their niche and/or infrastructure vendors will acquire them."
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