In the interest of answering comments (and even a voicemail!) about topics I've written about I wanted to follow up on my last Google Maps related article. The original article was just something to get the idea wheels turning in regards to the various ways a recruiter might use online maps. With quick thoughts ranging from commuter blues to competition bingo - there are definitely some things worth a second look.

I remember a day when the newspaper was the starting point for a typical job search and the interesting shift that took place as over the years that starting place migrated to the job boards. What we've seen in recent years is another shift... to search engines. With some sort of search box listed on nearly any browser's homepage (or in it's toolbars) it's no surprise - but what about the next shift? Is it to, or does it include, searching maps for jobs? Well... it might.

So after a little bit of research I found that it's actually quite easy to take a live feed of your jobs and push them through to Google Maps. In fact, I've set up the following Google Document (yes, you can edit it) to play with - and that updates this page live. Now don't let the html in some of the first column mess with you - it was just me playing with images and links for a job seeker to click - taking the map posting idea to the next level.

Go ahead... play a bit with the Google Doc. The results can be seen here. If you don't know your longitude and latitude just use this quick page to get the numbers to plug in. You probably won't need it though, right? Doesn't every good recruiter know the l/l of their jobs by heart?

This is fun for sure - but it didn't really address the issue of job seekers looking for your jobs. The reason is that the edits above don't get indexed in Google Maps or show up in Google Earth. What it IS good for however, is providing work locations via your career portal, social network, or recruiting blog. Want to get really crazy? There is a way to have the document update live from an RSS feed from your ATS... Oh yeah, I went there.

So returning from being sidetracked we look at challenge of getting into the search engines... Not a terribly difficult thing to do either. The key is getting your RSS feeds to convert to a .kml file (a Google Maps format) In fact, you might be surprised to find that this has already been done for you - and you just aren't aware of it. Services like Yakaz have been indexing jobs on Google Maps and Google Earth for a while.

Check out this link to see an example of Yakaz's indexing. If you pay close attention to the address found on the maps page you'll find you can edit the keywords a bit to suit your own interests. (replace "premises-technician" with "your-keywords-here" to get the job done.)

Is it perfect? Nah - your job seekers click the link that takes them to the board that was scraped that takes them to the posting on your ATS that lets them apply. Too many clicks in my humble opinion... but it is a start.

Originally posted here... (and comments welcome in either location!)