Vol. 1 Issue 8 - March 15, 2002 - Networking in Newsgroups

 

In this issue:

  • Using New Undocumented Google Phonebook Commands
  • "Networking in Newsgroups" by Marc Tyrrell
  • Recruiter's Cafe


NEW UNDOCUMENTED GOOGLE PHONEBOOK FEATURE

Google has an incredibly large phonebook listing of both business and residential numbers. When you search Google with some combination of First Name, Last Name (or Business Name) along with a City, State, Area Code or Zip Code, you may get two results at the top of the screen representing the phonebook.

For example, searching for

"johanson, chicago, IL"

displays two entries named Johanson in Chicago, IL, above regular Web search results. Click on "More Phonebook Listings" and you see the full phonebook. Now there is an undocumented command allowing you to search only the phonebook records!

The "phonebook:" command works like this, enter:

"phonebook:kinkos, phoenix"

Google returns a listing of all Kinko's in Phoenix on one page. The listings show business name, phone, address, and two maps.

This command is useful to you because Google may not return phonebook listings on a search unless you specifically request them. For example, searching for just:

"Johnson, Chicago"

will not return any phonebook entries, however,

"phonebook:Johnson, Chicago"

returns results only in phonebook mode. You will see two sets of listings: one is all Business and the other is all Residential.

If you want to find only one kind of listing, use the command "rphonebook:" for residential searches only or "bphonebook:" for business results only. Use these with Google's standard phonebook syntax which you can view here: http://www.google.com/help/features.html#wp .

NETWORKING IN NEWSGROUPS

By: Marc W.D. Tyrrell, Ph.D.

While many recruiters use newsgroups to search for resumes and/or post job opportunities, we generally neglect one of their key features: they are, or can be, communities of practice full of highly skilled people. Of course, the difficulty in using these groups as networking resources has been in sorting through the 100,000+ different groups to find the right community.

I use the term "community" with a very specific meaning. In general, all communities have three characteristics:

  • They are social networks that provide access to resources.
  • They operate in a "site" through which communications and resources flow.
  • They have a set of cultural "rituals" that define "proper" behaviour and separate "us" from "them".

When cold calling, we are attempting to tap into a "community": "are you interested in X? If not, do you know someone who is?" Cold calling attempts to access a community's network of resources from outside the community. To access the resources of the community from inside, we either have to be a part of that community, or be recommended by a member. This is why a call that runs something like "John Smith suggested that I call you..." works better than a cold call.

What "resources" are we to access? In general, we intend to access two main types of information resources, and one social resource. First, we are identifying people who a) have the skills and experience we need, and b) might be interested in a position. Second, we are attempting to find information on how those people interact with others, so that we can determine if they will "fit" into the hiring organization. Third, we are establishing a personal relationship with them, such that they will be interested in this or other positions.

All of this is nice, but what does it mean in practice? For many of us, the problem has been that the time spent to actually find a newsgroup community isn't worth the return. This, however, has changed. Last summer, Microsoft Research made one of their projects available to the general public. The Netscan project
(http://netscan.research.microsoft.com ), run by sociologist Marc Smith, is designed to allow users to identify online communities.

According to Smith and others like myself who study online communities there are certain key characteristics identifying a community that Netscan monitors, primarily the degree of interactivity (resource sharing) within a newsgroup. Users are allowed to search for Newsgroups based on newsgroup names, so a search for "telecom" would yield all newsgroups named "telecommunication", "telecommute", and so on. Search results are displayed in rank order by the number of postings and other metrics. The first indication that a given newsgroup is a community appears in the post to poster ration (PPRatio) and in the number of "returnees" - or people who posted this month who had posted last month.

Clicking on the name of the newsgroup brings up a "Report Card" on that newsgroup. This contains a chart showing changes since the previous month including interactivity measures and "nearest neighbours" which means other newsgroups where messages have been cross-posted.

Under this is the "Author Tracker", which sorts posters by the number of days seen, their amount of posts and replies, and how many other newsgroups they frequent. Next to the authors' e-mail address is a "Profile" button revealing a profile of all newsgroup activity for that individual in the past year. These profiles are useful for creating a picture of the individual's interests and online activities.

Under the Author Tracker is a Thread Tracker listing the top forty thread subject lines, sorted by number of posts and length of discussion. This allows us to quickly gauge whether or not a newsgroup is discussing items that are relevant to what we seek.

I have been using Netscan since August of 2001 and training job searchers to use it for networking purposes. I have found that you can get a very good handle on a newsgroup and let you decide whether or not they fit your purposes within about a minute.

When you combine the research capabilities of Netscan with the search capabilities of Google Groups, you have an unbeatable combination for identifying online communities, which are in turn excellent sources of candidates and an outstanding entry point into specialist networks.

About the Author:
Marc Tyrrell holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and teaches Sociology, Anthropology and Digital Culture at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. His dissertation research was on the development and operation of the Outplacement Industry in Canada. He is currently researching and teaching on online job searching, and cross-cultural aspects of job searching.

RECRUITER'S CAFE

Recently I've been sharing CyberSleuthing tips with Nelson Abreu of RecruitersCafe. I have been enormously impressed by his knowledge of the industry and with what he is undertaking. His venture is a networking & split-placement community for Search Professionals in the US and Canada. Nelson is an expert at networking, a topic on which he has written numerous highly acclaimed articles. You can find a list of them at http://www.recruiterscafe.com/archive/contents.htm . I also urge you subscribe to his Recruitment Networking Online E-Zine, which focuses on providing analysis, commentary and advice on the art of networking and its role in professional recruitment.

You may ask yourself why this is special, or different from other networks out there. The chief difference is that Recruiter's Café is a Web-based state-of-the-art networking and collaboration suite that integrates seamlessly into your daily activity allowing you to maximize productivity. Increasing productivity and networking online is what CyberSleuthing is all about.

This dynamic split-placement medium is a community where third-party recruiters can meet and network. Nelson established the Café on January 1999. It has developed rapidly and is already increasing the billings of its members. Among the key benefits available to members are placement solutions that encompass real applicant tracking, workflow streamlining and split-collaboration. You can register for a free 30-day trial at http://www.recruiterscafe.com/recruiters_network.htm .