It’s hard to fathom a Google-free existence. Significant amounts of day-to-day life are augmented by Google search or a Google Product. Even when imagining a post-apocalyptic world full of zombies and vigilantes, somehow Google was still there to answer hard-hitting questions like “best brunch in Chicago.” Beyond personal conveniences, in the past few months, Google has begun to lay siege of the talent acquisition world with the introduction of Google for Jobs. They’ve shaken up the industry by changing how candidates search for jobs, and how job postings are viewed. With all this in mind here are a few ways the disappearance of Google would pull the rug out from under recruiters and sourcers.
Literal Communication Black Hole
Not everyone uses Gmail or Google Docs professionally, although if you aren’t, you’re probably missing out. Even if you don’t use Gmail, odds are a good chunk of your CRM is packed full of users, and you just lost the ability to email them. This would be the like experiencing a rolling communication blackout. Until adjustments are made you better hope the phone numbers work, and that it wasn’t a Google voice number to start.
The thoughts of losing Google would affect the following:
- Google Docs: It’s hard to say how many people rely on Google Docs, but I would assume there is a vast majority of practitioners that rely on spreadsheets for a bulk of the data to share with colleagues. If Google Disappeared, we could say goodbye to a lot of ground-up CRM solutions and more.
- Google Voice: Not everyone can have their corporate line so using everything through Google Voice to mask phone numbers, take voicemails and have a “separate” work number is a useful trick in some instances.
- Google Adwords: Want to edge out the competition with different jobs? Try another source. Google Adwords plays into so many different facets of sourcing and looking for talent — having that ad platform gone, would have a noticeable effect.
- Chrome Extensions: We are saving a full section for this one. Read more below.
Oh the Humanity & the Chrome Extensions
Google Chrome has been a long-standing favorite for many sourcers. With a smooth design and plethora of extensions at the ready to make your day a little easier, what’s not to love? Here are a few examples of Chrome extensions that make a sourcer’s life easier which would no longer be available:
- 360social This beauty searches social media networks to help you find and cross-reference potential candidates in seconds by pulling profile information from various platforms to one easily viewed spot.
- WebClipDrop.io, This can clip and move data from job boards, career sites, and social profiles into most ATS and CRM systems.
- OneTab It’s common to have a ridiculous number of tabs open while sourcing. This converts your tabs into a list for easy access.
- Gorgias This extension allows you to create shareable email templates, eliminating pesky copying and pasting.
Bye Bye Google for Jobs
While Google for Jobs is still fairly new to the market, it is rapidly changing the landscape with strategic partnerships with career board giants such as CareerBuilder and Monster. Beyond driving traffic to this site, Google is also giving corporate career sites a leg up by changing the algorithm on how job postings are spidered, helping them move to the top of the list. The major player who isn’t playing along is Indeed. Indeed, with its long-term success of using Google’s algorithms to make their postings jump to the top of the search list, has decided to stand alone on its brand and market reputation. With these titans battling it out, it’s hard to imagine Indeed grieving Google’s loss.
There are alternatives….we promise.
In 2100 when all search engines become irrelevant and the robots have eventually taken over the….ok we kid, but if Google disappeared tomorrow what would that look like for the search engine landscape? The clear standout here is Bing and the recent acquisition of LinkedIn by Bing’s daddy, Microsoft. Although you see smaller search engines like DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Ask, and others, Bing will most likely become the go-to search engine, and their product focus would shift entirely to mimic that of what Google had. We probably won’t see Bing for Jobs because of LinkedIn, but we could see a bigger play as Bing and LinkedIn integrate with each other on the job landscape.
Grieving Google
The fact is if Google disappeared it’d completely change the way sourcers and recruiters work. Over time, we would get over the initial shock and grief and move into the arms of other search engines. Even so, it’s hard to imagine another company who could fill the shoes of Google and how they aid sourcers everywhere, for a very long time.