The best way to recruit new talent is to leverage the referrals of your current employees. Jobster has set out to apply this viral system to online job search and recruiting. By sprinkling some Web 2.0 pixie dust on existing job board models, Jobster is hoping to enter a space that has to date been dominated by the likes of Monster and Careerbuilder.

Back in the summer Myspace partnered with simplyhired in order to create Myspace Jobs. Compete data shows that the Myspace jobs pages are currently being utilized by about 1% of total Myspacers. This led to a healthy increase in job seekers at simplyhired.com.

It appears that Facebook is in talks to hook up with Jobster in a similar effort. Now, if the Facebook/Jobster proposed partnership experiences equivalent success (1% of Facebook visitors) that will translate to a nice spike in people utilizing Jobster.

So can Jobster compete with the behemoths of the online job market? Probably not. But, that may not be what they set out to do. Jobster has something different than Monster and the others; a social network. The only true rival site that comes to mind is LinkedIn.com, the professional’s social networking service. Interestingly enough, a Facebook/Jobster partnership that attracts the same 1% of total unique visitors from Facebook would currently leapfrog Jobster past LinkedIn.

From our vantage, Jobster and Facebook are a perfect match. It will be interesting to see what actually happens if and when Facebook and Jobster hookup.

Get SnapShots of sites mentioned in this post:

• jobster.com
• facebook.com
• monster.com
• careerbuilder.com
• myspace.com
• simplyhired.com
• linkedin.com

If you have not logged into Stickam.com, it’s probably because you are not a teenager. The New York Times recently reported that Stickam, a new social networking site, has around 50,000 registered users who are between the ages of 14 – 17. For those that are not familiar with Stickam, it is essentially MySpace with Web cameras. Members converse with friends and potential friends via real time video feeds. Obviously there are some concerns and controversies surrounding this site. Inevitably, the combination of young people and web cams equates to some trouble.

But, you have to do something different to take a piece of the pie from the giants like MySpace and Facebook, right? So will Stickam become a major player? Thus far they have seen impressive growth in monthly unique visitors since January, 2006.

Although it may not be catching on at the rampant pace that sites like MySpace and YouTube did, Stickam is no slouch.

But, what about engagement? The whole success of the social networking phenomenon relies upon users spending significant time adding content to their own profiles, reading other’s pages, and browsing new faces. When comparing the average time spent at the top social networking sites we found that stickam is lagging well behind.

Although Stickam is still new, it appears to not be as ‘sticky’ as other social networking/Web 2.0 sites. While the average MySpacer is “Online Now” for almost 28 minutes, Stickams visitors are “Live” for less than 8 minutes.

There you have it, Stickam, the new kid on the block, is attracting visitors but does not seem to be successful in engaging people to spend a significant amount of time. Perhaps at this point we are all social networked out.

Get SnapShots of sites mentioned in this post:

• stickam.com
• myspace.com
• youtube.com
• friendster.com
• facebook.com

Check out December data now on SnapShot.

Hitwise recently released data claiming that Google Blog Search surpassed Technorati in market share of US Internet visits during the week ending 12/23/06. The report found its way on to many prominent insight sources (GigaOM, Battellemedia, and Techcrunch), but did not align with Compete data. We wanted to share our observations before anyone starts shorting Technorati.

To the point…. Based on Compete data, Technorati continues to hold a significant lead on Google within Blog Search.

Weekly page views tells the same story.

All pundits agreed on two things.

• Google Blog Search’s recent traffic increase was closely associated with a prominent link to Google Blog Search which was added to the Google News Homepage in October.
• Google appears to have superior search technology (surprise surprise).

However, neither of these factors has propelled Google past the incumbent service of Technorati.

Compete is working to add ‘subdomain’ analysis to its free SnapShot service to allow our users to proactively conduct their own analysis on vertical services offered by Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.. In the future you won’t have to wait for the Compete Blog team to get a second opinion.

Get SnapShots of sites mentioned in this post:

• technorati.com
• gigaom.com
• battellemedia.com
• techcrunch.com

For much of America, present company included, each season has a sport associated with it. Spring and summer mean baseball games, hot dog in one hand and a cold beer in the other. In the fall, Sunday is a day devoted to NFL football games, eating a bowl of chili and sipping on a cold beer. And in the winter months basketball fans and hockey fans are in heaven (with some nachos and cold beers).

Not surprisingly, each major sport’s online property experiences a seasonal spike. The chart below illustrates the yearly peaks and valleys of visitors to NFL.com, MLB.com, NBA.com, and NHL.com.

Both NFL.com and MLB.com have become the front runners in attracting online enthusiasts. The similarities between the two sites’ visitation trends should come as no surprise as there is a great deal of overlap in the fan base of the two sports. Spring Training begins just as Superbowl memories begin to fade, and football kicks in right around the time the playoff contenders are being decided in baseball. The fans follow the cycles accordingly.

By contrast, the NBA, marred with fights and player disobedience, has experienced a decline in online interest. In 2001 NBA.com’s peak monthly unique visitor count rivaled that of NFL.com and MLB.com. But by 2006, the NBA’s high-water mark was just over 5 million unique visitors — a fraction of the peaks of 8.5 million and 9.2 million people to NFL.com and MLB.com respectively.

Hockey is the clear bottom dweller in the category, reflecting the NHL’s difficulties as of late. As if the sport’s waning popularity in the US wasn’t enough of a disadvantage, the lockout that canceled the 2004/2005 season appears to have solidified the league’s online property’s position in the rear of the pack.

For whatever reason, in America we love football and baseball. Some people follow the NBA and a select group of diehards hold interest in the NHL. Why is it that football and baseball have become a part of American culture while the other sports have been left by the wayside? Comments welcome.

Get SnapShots of sites mentioned in this post:

• nfl.com
• mlb.com
• nba.com
• nhl.com

Merry Christmas from the Compete team!