Google for Jobs Antitrust or Bust?

It’s The Shred – a mini-Chad and Cheese bite of Breaking News — This is Chad Sowash

The Shred is brought to you by HappyRecruiter.com, check out their chatbot Dora. Dora is the recruiter’s personal robot assistant that will help them hire more candidates, faster and that’s how your company becomes more cost-efficient. Check Dora out at HappyRecruiter.com

On to the NEWS..

Google for Jobs!

The EU Cries Antitrust, while the US asks for more!

More regulatory pressure for Google from Europe after 23 online job sites urged EU antitrust regulators to act against Google for allegedly using its market power to favor Google for Jobs.”

“Job sites say they have lost market share since Google launched its Google for Jobs service in Europe last year.” – “The criticism comes from companies, which include British site BestJobsOnline to German peers Intermedia and Jobindex”

Berlin-based StepStone GmbH, which operates 30 job websites globally has already lodged a formal complaint.

So basically, Stepstone and a bunch of other EU job boards are trying to push a new regulatory framework to stamp out Google for Jobs.

Other job technology firms say Google has driven innovation and competition.

“Nick Zakrasek, senior product manager for Google search, said the company welcomed the industry feedback on jobs search. Google said its offering addresses previous antitrust complaints by allowing rival search services to participate and includes a feature in Europe designed to give rivals prominence.

By improving the search experience for jobs, we’re able to deliver more traffic to sites across the web and support a healthy job search ecosystem.”

Case in point… Monster.com had lost users over the years because their user experience had sucked and this also meant low placement in regular Google search results, Monster’s CEO Scott Gutz said. “The new tool (Google for Jobs) gave Monster a path back to the top. There’s been a leveling of the playing field”

Another US-based organization, iCIMS which operates job websites for about 4,000 employers, said Google’s tool is the third largest referrer of visitors to clients’ pages… Susan Vitale, CMO for iCIMS says “What we’re already seeing with Google’s entrance is better matching candidates to jobs…”

Aha! There it is kids. iCIMS a top Applicant Tracking System is seeing great returns from Google as well. And if all ATS companies turn to Google for Jobs to index jobs and provide – a possible – lion’s of the traffic, in the future, where will that leave job boards?

Okay, back to the EU…

The question here is why are EU job sites taking issue with Google for Jobs? Are these jobsites using Google’s mark-up to get their jobs into the search index and in front of job seekers? We’ve seen here in the U.S. jobsites have boasted increases in their traffic from Google after having their jobs marked-up and sucked into the search index.

So are EU job sites bitching to stop innovation? Are they happy with forcing job seekers in their counties through a shitty experience? Are they afraid innovation has passed them by and find themselves clinging to old and dilapidated search tech?

I’m not sure exactly what the answer is… But I do know job sites across the U.S. are asking Google for more gruel. More Gruel Please sir…

Big thanks to HappyRecruiter.com for supporting The Shred. Try Dora – the recruiter assistant out for 3 free projects. No Credit Card required, you can stop at any time. Dora makes Happy Recruiter, check Dora out at HappyRecruiter.com

Sowash Out!

SOURCES:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-google-antitrust-exclusive/exclusive-googles-jobs-search-draws-antitrust-complaints-from-rivals-idUSKCN1V30IX European online job search websites call on EU to crack down on Google