[Watch on YouTube]

• Twitter: How to Bring Your Recruiting to the Next Level
• LinkedIn: Find Passive Candidates
• How to Build Your LinkedIn Network Effectively
• How Recruiters and Sourcers Can Use Twitter
• Facebook for Recruiters and Sourcers
• Firefox: Get ALL the Resumes
• Jigsaw: Uncover Job Seekers
• Resume Workshop
• Combing Periodicals for Leads
• Sourcing Alternatives to Google
• Quick Look at Powerlabs Search Engine
• 30 Recruiting Strategies in a Down Economy in 30 Minutes
• LinkedIn/Google Mashup: Leverage LinkedIn through Google
• Search Your Desktop; Find Passive Talent
• Joopz: Web Texting to Reach New Candidates

Searching for People

• Wink Claims to be the largest online people search with more than 200 million people profiles from across the Web, including social networks and other online communities.
• Where is Your Username registered Useful tool for seeing where a username is being used across multiple sites, social networks and online services.
• 123people.com 123people.com is a free people search tool that searches public records, phone numbers, addresses, images, videos and email addresses and leading social networks.
• Reunion.com Claims over 700 million profiles, all in one place. Requires free registration.
• Cyndi’s List Excellent portal to a comprehensive list of free resources and subscription services.
• Pipl Meta search of public records and other people-related documents mined for the “deep web.”
• PeopleJar Peoplejar is a search platform for individuals and organizations to be found and find others by specific attributes for any interest or profession.
• Classmates.com An online social networking tool enabling users to locate and interact with acquaintances from high school, college, work and the military.
• Yahoo! People Search As the name implies, people search from Yahoo!
• ZoomInfo A business information search engine with profiles on more than 45 million people and 5 million companies.
• Whozat? People search engine that organizes results from social networks and indexed web pages.
• PeopleSearch.net Meta search and portal for paid lookups.
• yasni Meta search that produces results from indexed web pages, social network sites, the deep web and public records. Results are organized under relevent tabs.
• PeekYou Search tool for finding user generated profiles, websites, social-networking pages, photos and other online activities.
• US Search US Search is a people search service that aggregates results from a variety of sources.
• Spock People lookup across multiple services, some paid to view.
• iSearch Meta search with optional paid results
• Spokeo Subscription service searching over 40 social networks.
• Whowhere People search and directory lookup from Lycos.
• LookupPage Database of user generated professional profiles and search tool.
• CVGadget.com Meta search and people lookup. Not much use unless the subject has an uncommon name.
• Addresses.com Free White Pages and Yellow Pages lookup plus email, zipcodes, city guides, public records, and background checks. Includes iGoogle gadget.
• LinkedIn LinkedIn is an online network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.
• Infobel An international information portal and search service.
• AnyWho Directory listings by state including reverse lookup, maps, area codes and toll-free numbers.
• ZabaSearch! Free people search and public information search engine.

Background Checks

• Criminal Searches Free search of public records for convicted persons
• Net-Vestigator! Paid service [download] provided access across multiple databases
• OnlinePublicRecordsSearch.com Membership site [paid] with a comprehensive list of options for searching public records by state and agency.
• Virtual Gumshoe Provides a free public records directory, access information and investigative tools. Useful blog with tips and techniques for would-be sleuths.
• US Search US Search is a people search service that aggregates results from a variety of sources.
• Global Information Services Paid service that provides a complete solution, delivering accurate information the same day you need it.
• Merlin Information Services Paid service designed for private investigators.
• ZabaSearch! Free people search and public information search engine.

Misc. Lookups

• WHOIS Search Search by domain name or IP address to find registration details for websites
• ZIP Code Lookup Find zip codes by city and state
• Ancestry.com Historical records with information on over 6 billion people
• ReferenceUSA Directory listing of infoUSA databases covering international business and residential data. Requires payment
• ZipMath Software Handy tool for listing zip codes within a radius of a single location
• Whois.Net Search ownership details for domains and websites by keyword
• AnyWho Directory listngs by state including reverse lookup, maps, area codes and toll-free numbers.

Relocation Lookups

• Domania Useful resource with research data, lookups, calculators and learning center.
• Real Estate Reports Reports compiled from tax reporting data and sales history.
• Altos Research Real estate research, real estate data, and reports.
• Zillow An online real estate service providing valuable tools and information.

Salary Lookups

• Accurate Salary Search Reports salaries for Google software engineers [default] and others.
• Salary Search | Indeed.com Salary data compiled from job posting data.
• PayScale Get accurate, real-time salary reports based on your job title, location, education, skills and experience.
• Salary.com Real-time salary reports based on job title, location, education, skills and experience.
• Glassdoor.com User generated reviews of their workplace, employers, salaries and more.

Did you know? These research pages are being updated all of the time. You might want bookmark this page or consider subscribing to BROWN BAG RECRUITER instead.

Presentations

• Candidate Sourcing Here are the slides for the presentation that covers the basic concepts for developing a sourcing plan [based on the candidate profile].  Download the presentation here [PDF] and workbook notes here [PDF].
• Searching for Candidates on Google: Part 1 The presentation slides introducing the basics of Boolean search operators.  Download the presentation here [PDF] and workbook notes here [PDF].
• Sample Hacks A short list of search strings to play with [to be expanded so check back later].

Google Basics

• Boolean Searching on the Internet Database searching is often based on the principles of Boolean logic. Google is no exception which makes this primer particularly useful.
• The Essentials of Google Search From Google these pages cover everything from choosing search terms through using the advanced search option.
• Google Tutor Tips and tutorials including a Google Search Manual that covers basics like building a search query and adding basic operators to more advanced stuff.
• Google Guide This online tutorial is made up of easy to digest chapters with plenty of examples and problems to work through, up to expert levels. Includes a useful two-page quick reference.
• Google People Search [Wendy Boswell, About.com] An overview of using Google to find people.

Firefox Downloads

• Firefox 3 The latest version of Firefox is by far the best browser for sourcing because of the large number of useful add-ons that support candidate sourcing and related search…
• Advanced Dork Quick access to Google’s advanced operators directly from the context menu
• Customize Google This extension enhances Google search results by adding extra information like links to Yahoo, Ask, AllTheWeb, Live, Lycos, Technorati, Feedster, Wikipedia, Bloglines, Altavista, A9. It also removes unwanted information like ads and spam.
• DownThemAll! A download manager particularly helpful for saving results to your desktop. Here is an excellent tutorial by Geoff Peterson on StaffBytes.com:
  Firefox Video Tutorial: Get ALL The Resumes
• Google Toolbar for Firefox As if you needed telling!
• Hyperwords Select any text on any page for one-click access to references, searches, conversions, translations and so on.
• LinkedIn Companion Access LinkedIn’s search directly from highlighted text on the web page, from the toolbar and more.
• More Add-ons Depending on your level of interest and comfort there are many useful extensions that can enhance your sourcing experience and browsing fun. Check them out…

More Downloads

• Sourcing Bookmarklets Glenn Gutmacher’s collection of sourcing applets
• Surfing Bookmarklets A useful collection from Bookmarklets.com [includes user groups]
• Argali White & Yellow Directory look-up tool.

Video Tutorials

• The Recruiters Guide to Google [Password is google101]  Courtesy of Jim Stroud
• Search Engine Fundamentals and Basic Boolean Logic Series of 4 videos bu Otis Collier
• Sourcing Resumes Using Yahoo! and Firefox
• Social Networking in Plain English A Common Craft tutorial
• RSS in Plain English Another Common Craft video

More Reading

• Google Hacks 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tricks This is the entire book, a collection of tested solutions with a variety of interesting ways for power users to mine the enormous amount of information that Google indexes.
• Resume Forensics Jim Stroud’s collection of tips, hacks and procedures for sourcing candidates online. Two more useful resources from Jim Stroud: Digability – Yahoo Commando [PDF] and Digability – Cheat Sheet [PDF].

Special thanks to ZoomInfo for sponsoring this session and for making a 7-day free trial available for us to use.

Did you know? This page will updated regularly with an email to alert you to significant changes. You might want bookmark this page or consider subscribing to BROWN BAG RECRUITER instead.

Can’t see the video? Here it is on Blinkx Video.

Credits: Rob Safuto

• Get the presentation slides [PowerPoint]
• Download the presentation slides [PDF]
• Download the workbook notes for this session [PDF]

For the record, the original sponsors for this session were: RCI Recruitment Solutions

During 2008, the directory will be distributed free of charge to recruiting professionals from 100 percent of the Fortune 500, in every major industry, including the 250 largest U.S. hospitals and 150 largest federal agencies. Indexed by vertical industries, the directory is available in print or can be accessed online in a searchable format.

Get yours here…

Courtesy of Lonnie McRorey, a custom search engine for extracting resumes using Google. For an example of software engineers and Palm Beach, Florida click here.

Credits: Lonnie McRorey

In no particular order, here are a few engines and databases to experiment with, compare search results…

Vertical search for job seekers [and sourcers!]:

• Indeed.com A search engine for jobs. The site aggregates postings from a variety job boards, corporate web sites, association sites and many other places. Useful tools allow you to view job trends, search salaries, and view jobs by state or category.
• SimplyHired.com Like Indeed.com in most respects with a similar offering of helpful tools.
• Jobster The site combines job postings from a variety of sources including those posted directly to the site by employers. Employers can also search the resume database.
• GetTheJob claims to represent the elusive “hidden job market” by connecting job seekers directly with the companies that are hiring.

For finding professionals:

• LinkedIn.com LinkedIn is an online global network of more than 17 million experienced professionals across 150 industries. Access to others depends on the size of your own network.
• Spoke An online business-to-business network with information on over 40 million people across more than updated to 2.3 million companies.
• Jigsaw Over 7 million business contacts from over 550,00 companies in a searchable online directory maintained by a community of over 300,000 members basically trading business cards.
• ZoomInfo A web-based service that extracts information about people and companies from millions of published resources.
• XING A Euro-centric professional network, directory of business contacts, contact management tool that lets you search across the network.
• Ziggs Search index of over 3 million professionals representing more than 90,000 companies from profiles posted on sites throughout the web.

For finding people and personal data:

• iNet-Investigation.com Provides you free public information links on the web. A searchable links directory of resources and databases is helpful with your online research.
• Pipl This engine searches for people gathering data from the “deep web” — documents and databases overlooked by the webcrawlers that produce ordinary search engine results.
• ZabaSearch A search tool that accesses public information and displays what is available in the public domain. An advanced search option helps narrow down the field.
• Argali White & Yellow A software download that searches multiple telephone and email directories. Matches are combined, formatted in uniform way and displayed as if they came from one integrated directory.

Metasearch and other search engines:

• Answers.com Ad supported references search
• Beaucoup A combination directory and metasearch site, with connections to 2500+ search engines, directories, and indices.
• Clusty Searches a number of free, search engines and directories but not Google or Yahoo. Results are organized in theme-based folders. Accepts advanced Boolean searches.
• Dogpile Searches Google, Yahoo, LookSmart, Ask.com, MSN search, and others. Trade off sponsored links with advanced Boolean searching.
• Ixquick Metasearch Searches 14 sites, lets you specify a Web search or a search for news, MP3 files, or pictures, and tailors your search for the parameters of each search engine selected)
• MySearchEngines Configurable metasearch site that lets you choose the engines you want results pulled from.
• Search Engine Colossus An international directory of search engines covering 343 countries and multiple languages.
• SurfWax Better with simple searches but useful for the larger number of sites searched, more if you sign up and share
• Vivisimo Collates links from 8 sites and groups results into folders. [Cautionary notes]
• Zworks Searches popular search engines simultaneously or individually and sorts results for relevancy. Includes filtered, Boolean and advanced options.

Did you know? These tools pages are being updated all of the time. You might want bookmark this page or consider subscribing to BROWN BAG RECRUITER instead.