In case you’ve missed it, something big has happened across-the-pond in the world of digital recruiting.  Two of the big players in the sector, have now become one, with Monster buying Yahoo Hotjobs for $225 million (£143 million).

It’s an interesting development, particularly given the ill health of the recruitment sector both home and abroad, but the deal is unlikely to have much to do with the economics of the sector.  Yahoo, who have had a history of bold acquisitions, are clearly ‘tidying shop’ at the moment.

Some might see the deal as a cost effective purchase for Monster, after all Yahoo paid $436 million for HotJobs in 2001, after Monster’s parent company TMP Worldwide stepped out of the acquisition race.  Others will see it as a defensive move, to prevent a competitor (CareerBuilder for example) snapping up the company, with it’s important newspaper consortium.

We’re asking the question, if Monster’s got the cheque book out in the states, is it looking for acquisitions in the UK also?

It’s been a difficult year for the online recruitment sector. Like many industries, the recession has bitten hard; the plummeting job numbers on job boards has been an obvious sign of the pain the sector has experienced. But it’s also been a year of unfaltering optimism for the value technology can bring to the recruitment process.

Take social media for example. The explosion in companies using Facebook as a communication tool and social branding platform has been impressive. Personally, I’ve been impressed by the use of Facebook Groups, particularly as a tool to maintain connections with casual or occasional workers. The jury might still be out on whether recruiting via Facebook will be a winner, but it is now almost impossible to dismiss Facebook as an employment messaging platform.

The same can be said for Twitter, which this year has emerged from its ‘geeky origins’ and gone main stream. We’ve seen great innovations like TwitterJobSearch, together with some impressive advice on how to use the platform for recruiting purposes. Many employers are still asking themselves the question “To tweet or not to tweet?”, the answer to which is hopefully being driven by ROI analysis.

But of course, what is more encouraging than ever is the growing number of sites and individuals offering valuable information to those new to the online recruitment process. This year CareerPlayer emerge as a valuable source of guidance for graduate job seekers, which was underlined by the site winning not one, but two, NORA categories. Couple that with CareerSiteAdvisor arriving as a resource for the employer market and it’s hard not to feel optimistic; after all education is the key to greater adoption.

The recession might have bitten hard this year, but the industry has certainly bared its teeth back and prepared for the fight. With this much energy in the sector, 2010 is set to be a very exciting year. 

Merry Christmas!

By now most online recruitment specialists will know the name TwitterJobSearch, a relatively recent development in the social networking/job board space, which has had a reasonable share of media attention.

What you may not know is just how the job search engine goes ‘beyond the tweet’, in an effort to make twitter-based job seekers lives a little easier.

We caught up with Bill Fischer, Co-Founder of the TwitterJobSearch site, to understand just how they are approaching things differently. The interview, which is available to the right or you can ‘listen as you browse’ using the born Audio Player.

During the interview Bill discusses a range of topics, from how the site differs from typical aggregators to how it utilises ‘semantic search’ techniques. We also discuss how the site performing in the real world, outside of the hype of the ‘Twitter bubble’.

TwitterJobSearch might just be giving us a tiny peak into what the future of ‘contextualised job searching’ might become. This is one interview everyone in the business should listen to.