How to Source on About.Me

booleanstrings Boolean Leave a Comment

aboutme

When a specific site may have target professionals, there are always two complementary ways to try to source them from the site:

  • Deep Web Search, i.e. using the site’s search dialog(s)
  • X-Ray, i.e. searching for the information  on the Surface Web, using a search engine’s (typically, Google’s) operator site:

Let’s apply the two approaches to sourcing on the site About.me.

Deep Web Search

 The About.me search dialog offers to enter “an interest, place, organization, or name”.

Apparently, the dialog interprets any entered keywords along these categories. For example, if you enter Microsoft, it is interpreted as an organization; if you add Seattle, the search is narrowed down to a place.

To control the searches better than the search dialog offers, you can use the syntax of constructing the search URL, filling out one or more of the search facets:

https://about.me/search/keyword:/org:/place:/name

 X-Ray

 Obviously, you can X-Ray for keywords that are likely to appear on the profiles:

site:about.me microsoft seattle software

Notice that the employer, location, name, and education are often present in the titles of the about.me profiles. You can try X-raying in a more precise manner by using the operator intitle:

site:about.me intitle:microsoft

Here’s an X-Ray for contact information example:

site:about.me C# gmail.com

Finally, for those who really dislike advanced Boolean operators, here is an

X-Ray About.me Custom Search Engine

Use the Public URL: X-Ray About.me.

Want to Source like a Pro? Register for the repeat of the previously sold-out workshop “Sourcing without LinkedIn”

The workshop is recorded and comes with one month of support on anything “Sourcing without LinkedIn”. Additionally, everyone who gets enrolled will get a Tip Sheet outlining various Sourcing sites, tools, and techniques. Sign up early; based on the previous experience, we expect the event to be sold out.

Review the outline and register

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *