Australian Job Board Statistics measuring the total unique browsers during February 2010. Data source - Nielsen NetRatings. SEEK 3.98m, CareerOne 1.76m, MyCareer 1.43m
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Lately, I have been working on new product development ideas around the use of mobile devices for a number of recruitment clients. Our discussions always seem to come back to this one question... Should we build a specific mobile application for the platform or optimise our existing website?
I have reposted a number of interesting graphs and statistics from the December 2009 (pdf) and January 2010 (pdf) AdMob Mobile Metrics reports. These reports look at mobile user behaviour and platform analytics.
Note: AdMob publishes the Mobile Metrics Report to provide a measure of mobile Web and application usage from THEIR NETWORK of more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications. AdMob share is calculated by the percentage of requests received from a particular handset; it is a measure of relative mobile Web and application usage and does not represent handset sales. In the statistics below, Oceania is defined by Australia, New Zealand and several islands in the Pacific Ocean.
December 2009
Apple's share increased dramatically throughout 2009 and its devices are responsible for the vast majority of requests in the region. The top 10 smartphones in Q4 2009 included the Apple iPhone, HTC Magic, HTC Hero, BlackBerry 9000 and six different Nokia models.
January 2010
Note: All data in the feature section is based on an opt-in survey taken by users on their mobile device. Respondents were sourced by responding to mobile ads throughout AdMob's iPhone OS, Android and webOS networks. There was no incentive offered to participate in the survey. There were 963 total respondents: 318 Android, 244 iPhone, 356 iPod touch and 45 webOS. The survey was run from February 5th - February 16th. The geographic representation of the respondents was designed to approximate the distribution of users in the AdMob network. The respondents were sourced from English-speaking countries in the AdMob network.
Android and iPhone users download a similar number of apps every month and spend a similar amount of time using the apps.
However, some differences between the platforms still exist. Only 21% of Android users purchase at least 1 paid app per month, compared to 24% of webOS users, 35% of iPod touch users and 50% of iPhone users.
iPod touch users download an average of 12 apps a month, 37% more apps than iPhone and Android users.
iPod touch users also spent 100 minutes a day using apps, 25% more time than iPhone and Android users.
webOS users downloaded fewer total apps per month, relative to iPhone OS users and Android users. This may be related to the fewer number of apps in the webOS App Catalog.
73% of Android users are male, compared to 58% of webOS users, 57% of iPhone users and 54% iPod touch users.
The iPhone, iPod touch and webOS have similar gender distributions, with just over half of the users on all devices being male.
iPod touch users skew considerably younger relative to other platforms and devices.
Based on the survey, 78% of iPod touch users are below the age of 25, compared to 25% of iPhone users and 24% of Android and webOS users.
The average age of an Android device user (35) is similar to an iPhone user (37) and that of a webOS device user (36). The average age of an iPod touch user is 23. iPhone, Android and webOS users are fairly evenly split across age groups.
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I regularly get stats sent to me by both clients are others noting the high percentage of people accessing the web on an iPhone as compared to other devices (i.e. iPhone users want to use apps and mobile services, other devices users don't) . These stats are regularly doing the rounds at the moment and as far as I'm concerned are quite misleading. Whilst right now this may well be the case, a large part of the reason behind this is that the iPhone was one of the first phones on the market that truly centred the interface & experience around online activity, and a great apps market. Every one of the other handset makers have raced to catch up. Although there's still a little way to go now, for the most part the latest round of phones have caught up pretty well, and I fully expect the percentage of mobile web surfing on other devices to steadily rise as a result.
Also it should be noted that the iPhone is usually still the more expensive option when compared to a Nokia or Samsung (or even a Google Android phone in many cases). Therefore when the other makers are starting to offer a similar experience and capabilities to the iPhone, you are left with the "hype" and the very large marketing drive behind the iPhone. The heavy marketing drive often creates an untrue idea that "everyone's using an iPhone".
I also speak from personal experience here - I was considering buying an iPhone when my last Nokia phone came up for upgrade. However when looking at the cost, and seeing that the latest Nokia touchscreen was available on a far cheaper package and at zero upfront cost, it was a no-brainer for me. I don't think I'm alone in following this approach..
To summarise, my advice for companies would be not to try and jump aboard the iPhone bandwagon without a strong reason to - it may well be that for your target demographic, iPhone usage is disproportionately higher and therefore actually worth the cost of targeting separately. It may well also be the case that you wish to take advantage of the current marketing drive behind the iPhone and build a marketing campaign on top of an iPhone app - i.e. "We're cutting edge and cool by association". This can certainly be worth the cost outlay for some, but simply having an iPhone app for the purpose of opening up your site/services to mobile users will not be the better option when compared with a well thought out mobile website.
We struggled with the same questions developing our SMStheJOB service.
We decided that rather than wait for the all one common bells & whistles mobile platform job ad that we would just launch with an SMS based job alert that Job Seekers could reply to and in doing so motivate our server to forward their application including their resume to the Advertisers email box.
Surprising us was the fact that Job Seekers we had not expected to pick up on an SMS based service are getting involved. Engineers for example and legal professionals are now part of our subscriber base and receiving SMS job alerts.
We do intend to migrate to a more bells and whistles mobile technology as the space starts to zero in on a winner in the meantime our SMS version is demonstrating that Job Seekers are keen for a Mobile interface.
Every website wants to have the highest number of visitors, and unfortunately this will either cost you lots of money or take you a considerable amount of time building a community. One of the ways you can build a traffic referral network and engage with your community is by providing an API.
Previously we talked about what is an API last year. An API is a software-to-software interface - NOT a user interface. With APIs, applications talk to each other without any user knowledge or intervention. Job boards, recruitment databases, payment providers & social networking sites all use some sort of API to communicate with each other. With APIs, the calls back and forth between applications are managed through a web service.
Most job boards use some sort of API/Web Service to allow bulk job postings on the back end, but fail to provide any sort of front end service. Just think of the ways developers can mash up, aggregate or repurpose jobs data and provide referral traffic.
If you want to see a good example of a job board API, have a look at Authentic Jobs who provide an open API. If you have any other examples of public API's please let me know.
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Becoming a Chartered Accountant is a long process... juggling work, study and family commitments for years! It's great to see industry bodies using technology to promote career paths to the new generation of workers.
Some people just can't get enough of the Chartered Accountants website, so they launched a new version for when you're on the go. This mobile enabled website contains the latest careers and work experience events, competitions, and a little information about becoming a Chartered Accountant.
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John Sumser has just released HRExaminer's second series of lists documenting the online world’s Most Influential People in HR and its subsets. Australian Thomas Shaw has been included at number 3 of the Top 25 Most Influential Online Recruiters. Not only is it an honor to be included in John's research, but to be listed as the only Australian and at such a high ranking was a complete shock.
The list was created using software called Traackr. Traackr uses a combination of spidering, processing and analytics to develop its lists. In order to really quantify the dimensions of online influence, Traackr measures three key variables:
Reach: A measure of the audience size (number of eyeballs) for each individual. Traffic.
Relevance: The degree to which content associated with the individual matches a cloud of keywords prepared for the analysis
Resonance: The number of mentions, inbound links and participation found for each individual.
Traackr spiders the web based on searches for those search terms. That massive pile of data is then sorted and sifted in Traackr’s analytic sandbox. Links, references, content, name duplication are all identified, assessed and reexamined. Ultimately, after a number of spider-analyze-spider iterations, the list starts to take shape.
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The RCSA has released the latest Quarterly Business Manager Survey results for the 4th Qtr 2009. The survey results show a decrease in the use of Niche Job Boards, Social Networking sites and Refer a Friend Incentives to source candidates. But is this survey result a true reflection of industry trends or an error in the survey?
The survey has again failed to correctly identify sourcing channels recruiters use to source candidates!
Social Networking sites should be grouped together. What ever happened to Resume Databases? Newspapers? Print Media? Surely these are more important (and used) channels than Second Life.
Linkme and LinkedIn are the same type of site? Hmm... 4th Qtr 2009 - 177 responses, data collection began early December 2009 and completed 5 February 2010 3rd Qtr 2009 - 201 responses, data collection began early October 2009 and completed 16 October 2009 2nd Qtr 2009 - 184 responses, data collection began early July 2009 and completed 30 July 2009
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To me Thomas this looks like the RCSA do not even really know what they are surveying. Calling Twitter a "virtual communication channel" and LinkedIn a "business networking site" seems an artificial not to mention misleading distinction. It all seems to contradict the findings from one case study of a SME in Australia. Interested folk can read more here
http://bit.ly/diyr
>http://bit.ly/diyr
Did you know on some application forms you can manipulate the URL and have the candidate’s job application redirected to someone else’s email address? Job boards, career/recruitment websites are already a haven for identity thieves and this "oversight" on your application form is fueling their business!
You would think by now that recruitment technology providers, job board developers, risk management experts would be able to identify security risks in the candidates job application process. But alas, no - there are still many examples of this security risk present on application forms.
So what exactly am I talking about?
When a candidate applies for a job, they are usually redirected to an online application form. The application form URL may contain the destination email address (usually the recruitment consultant or inbox email address).
This is BAD!
If you change the email address in the URL you maybe able to redirect the candidate’s application to another email address. Guess what? You would not even be aware this may be happening on your application forms already!
This is not an issue which is going to go away. If your application form has an email address in the URL you need to immediately fix this problem!
Job boards can minimise their exposure to redirecting candidates to insecure websites by restricting URLs that contain an email address. It is better to be safe than sorry.
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Jamie (2:03am Thursday 11 February 2010)
Tisk tisk. How could programmers get away with this.
Najara V. (2:13am Thursday 11 February 2010)
Shame on the whole recruitment industry for not taking security seriously.
It's only a matter of time before a recruitment agency gets exposed for a lack of online security.
What about the poor candidate? I feel sorry for them.
Name and shame.
Name and shame.
J (10:38am Thursday 11 February 2010)
Would these recruiters be part of the RCSA?
Tony B. (2:59pm Sunday 14 February 2010)
This is probably one of the best information sources for recruiters. Well done to Recruitment Directory for providing this. I can't wait to see what blog post is next?
Thomas, are you currently working fulltime for a job board or still freelancing? Drop me an email I have some work for you on our job board.
Keep up the good work.
Tony.
John (11:31am Monday 15 February 2010)
I'm not sure what you think the security risk is. Who are you saying would change the URL? The candidate? Why would they do that? The job board? That seems like a pretty average way to protect your revenue stream.
I agree - name and shame! Employment Office application forms definately do not have an email address in the URL. Thanks Thomas for brining it to the attention of candidates.
Application Forms (4:42pm Monday 26 April 2010)
I too agre with Irini Cvlliotis without any url, why Employment Office application forms does not have an email address?
Super Bowl XLIV has just finished airing in the United States. One of the highlights each year is the release of new commercials. Over the past few years we have seen CareerBuilder battle against Monster for the best commercial. Who will take out the title this year?
In the Monster Super Bowl Ad, Monster.com helps a busy fiddling beaver realize his dreams. "Get a Monster Advantage".
CareerBuilder's ad was labeled "too hot for TV" Love Casual Fridays? You might not if you worked here.
CareerBuilder gets my vote. What do you think? CareerBuilder or Monster.
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Vikram Nair (2:56am Thursday 11 February 2010)
Although there's a bias here for CB (since I work for them) - I'm going to have to say that Monster failed to impress this year. I enjoyed their commercial from last year a lot more.
Search Suggest and/or Auto-Compete is a function usually applied to the keyword field of a job search form. The use of these functions enhances the users search experience through a "suggest as you type" or auto-complete functionality built into the job search form.
For example, as you start to enter letters/numbers into the search field, the function automatically conducts a search and returns any search results matched to that query. You can then either select the relevant keywords or continue typing. You can read more about this topic in a dissertation (PDF) by Ingmar Webar titled Efficient Index Structures for and Applications of the CompleteSearch Engine.
Using a search suggest or auto-complete function can...
reduces the chance of misspelled queries by guiding users to desired queries
reduces the typing effort required by users
speeds up the search-experience by reducing the need to type long queries
improves the quality and precision of queries
lets the website influence search choices instead of being passive observer
Metrics you can use to determine if this function could be a success for your job search form...
fewer keyword misspellings
fewer "did you mean" requests and lower usage of "did you mean" suggestions
fewer "0 results returned" searches
lower number of searches/session metrics
can lead to lower "time on site" metrics
users can find what they are after faster
The MyCareer job search example (above right) starts the search based on 2 letters/numbers. Recruit.net search function is based on 1 letter/number and shows the number of jobs matching the search criteria. Unfortunately the search function on both these examples only matches the start of a keyword string. ie it will not return suggested results if you type "ccount" of "accounting".
CareerZone search is based on 1 letter/number and returns search results that are in the job title. These results are grouped and sorted by the job title.
One of the best examples of search suggest is from Jobs.co.nz as it matches results within in the job title, and also within the job advertisement.
This search suggest example from Yahoo7 has the option to turn the function on or off.
You can also apply this functionality to the location field. Below are examples from MyCareer and Hippo.
Feel free to join in on the conversation. All comments are moderated before publishing. Comments posted by subscribers don't necessarily reflect the views of Recruitment Directory.
Feel free to join in on the conversation. All comments are moderated before publishing. Comments posted by subscribers don't necessarily reflect the views of Recruitment Directory.
A number of users have had trouble viewing this video. This may be because of your internet security policy blocking youtube videos or classified content. The video is funny... but has a number of "rude" words. Not done by me.
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Android and iPhone users download a similar number of apps every month and spend a similar amount of time using the apps.
f Android users are male, compared to 58% of webOS users, 57% of iPhone users and 54% iPod touch users. 
The list was created using software called Traackr. Traackr uses a combination of spidering, processing and analytics to develop its lists. In order to really quantify the dimensions of online influence, Traackr measures three key variables:
The survey has again failed to correctly identify sourcing channels recruiters use to source candidates! 
Using a search suggest or auto-complete function can...
Also it should be noted that the iPhone is usually still the more expensive option when compared to a Nokia or Samsung (or even a Google Android phone in many cases). Therefore when the other makers are starting to offer a similar experience and capabilities to the iPhone, you are left with the "hype" and the very large marketing drive behind the iPhone. The heavy marketing drive often creates an untrue idea that "everyone's using an iPhone".
I also speak from personal experience here - I was considering buying an iPhone when my last Nokia phone came up for upgrade. However when looking at the cost, and seeing that the latest Nokia touchscreen was available on a far cheaper package and at zero upfront cost, it was a no-brainer for me. I don't think I'm alone in following this approach..
To summarise, my advice for companies would be not to try and jump aboard the iPhone bandwagon without a strong reason to - it may well be that for your target demographic, iPhone usage is disproportionately higher and therefore actually worth the cost of targeting separately. It may well also be the case that you wish to take advantage of the current marketing drive behind the iPhone and build a marketing campaign on top of an iPhone app - i.e. "We're cutting edge and cool by association". This can certainly be worth the cost outlay for some, but simply having an iPhone app for the purpose of opening up your site/services to mobile users will not be the better option when compared with a well thought out mobile website.