The Seattle-Search.com Blog

TalentSpring Delivers New Level of Transparency to Job Seekers, Leads Recruiters to Best Candidates in Specific Job Categories

Imagine applying for a new job and, almost immediately, having the ability to see the level of talent you’re competing with and, more importantly, how you stack-up by comparison. Beginning today, that experience becomes a reality with the launch of TalentSpring.

TalentSpring is a new online job board that enables job candidates to submit their resumes for merit scoring by their peers. Once scored, each resume is then sorted to allow for a “best-to-least qualified ranking” in industry-specific job categories including marketing, sales, finance and computer programming.

“Anyone that applies for a job wants to know who they’re competing with and if they’re a leading candidate, particularly if they’re reaching for the next level,” said TalentSpring founder and CEO Bryan Starbuck. “Our service delivers this information in a way that enables job candidates to prepare for potential interviews and, on the flipside, to know when they need to move on to the next opportunity.”

The new service also provides a valuable tool for recruiters and corporate HR teams seeking to expedite the process of identifying top-tier job candidates.

Internet search giant adding R&D center in Seattle

Add Google to the Greater Seattle community of Fremont’s northwest mystique, along with the famous troll, the annual Summer Solstice parade and the presence of such high tech firms as Getty Images and Adobe.
A new Googleplex will be hatched in 60,000 square feet sub-leased from Getty Images for a new R&D center, adding to the Puget Sound center it already operates in Kirkland, home of Google Webmaster Cntral.
“We are interested in giving people the option to work near where they live, and some people want to be close to downtown,” Google spokeswoman Sunny Gettinger said. She declined to say how many people Google plans to hire in Fremont, but she said it will fill the center with new jobs, not just transfers from Kirkland.

Google’s expansion in Fremont comes as Microsoft makes a bigger push into Seattle with Friday’s $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive. In an interview with the Seattle P-I, Microsoft’s Kevin Johnson said that the company may consider shifting some employees from Redmond to Seattle.

In the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, the company has announced that it is acquiring aQuantive, an online advertising services firm, in an all-cash deal at $66.50 per share, for $6 billion.

aQuantive, which has approximately 2600 employees, will continue to operate from its Seattle headquarters as part of Microsoft’s Online Services Business.

aQuantive posted a profit of $54 million last year on revenue of $442 million. Its Digital Marketing Services segment consists of Avenue A | Razorfish and a number of other international agencies. The Digital Marketing technologies (DMT) Group consists of Atlas, a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise and recently-acquired Accipiter, a publisher-side ad serving technology provider. Atlas Search (formerly Atlas OnePoint or GoToast) enables agencies and marketers to manage their PPC advertising campaigns. Accipiter provides web publishers an inventory management solution.

Microsoft has launched a new site named Live Search Club, where you can play games to earn rewards. Some of the prizes you can win include ringtones, earphones, T-shirts, Microsoft Office, Xbox and many other prizes.The LiveSide Blog also reports that Microsoft is going to redirect start.com to live.com on May 22, 2007. Start.com is a personalized portal powered by Microsoft that launched in November 2005.

http://club.live.com/

Trinity Ventures general partner Larry Orr announced the top 10 reasons to invest in Seattle in his keynote address at the recent WSA Investment Forum. 10.) Thirty nine flights a day from the Bay Area.

9.) No need to pack sunscreen.

8.) “It’s the coffee, stupid.”

7.) People can afford to live here, though he quickly added “on a relative basis.”

6.) You can see an NFL playoff game here.

5.) Underserved venture market.

4.) Quality companies with domain expertise.

3.) Technical talent.

2.) Great local partners.

1.) Entrepreneurial values.

A new community guide called Zigogo, has positioned itself as an online concierge who knows all of the best restaurants, clubs and shops in the neighborhood and delivers searchable, relevant and real-time calendars, menus and special events information directly to customers online or on their mobile phone. Customers can watch videos, browse pictures and even get door-to-door driving directions for businesses in their neighborhood–all available wherever they are and whenever they want it! Visit Zigogo today!

Did you catch Redin CEO Glenn Kelman on Sunday’s 60 Minutes? “Real estate, by far, is the most screwed up industry in America,” said Glenn. “And we feel like things that Amazon or eBay or Yahoo have done of other industries, we can do for the real estate industry.” The CBS News blog lit up after the show, fanning the flames of the fight between traditional Realtors and online innovators over the coveted 6% of a property’s sales commission.

Amazon.com Inc. plans to launch a digital music store later this year that will sell all songs without antipiracy technology, creating a rival to Apple Inc.’s iTunes store.The Seattle online retailer said its music store will have “millions of songs” in the MP3 format without so-called digital rights management, or DRM, software, which prevents consumers from freely copying and transfering their music among a variety of devices.

Amazon said the store will launch with music from EMI Group PLC, which said last month it would allow Apple and others to sell its music without copy protection.