(For those not familiar with the terminology, X-ray means using the operator site: on Google or on Bing/Yahoo.)
Search for profiles on LinkedIn by using X-ray has been one of the favorite sourcing techniques. The reason why this has been possible is that LinkedIn allowed its members to have “public profiles” with quite a bit of info, visible to search engines.
You know why I think X-Raying LinkedIn may be a technique that is not going to survive? Well, just do a search like this and click on a few results:
This is how some public profiles now look.
My profile still shows quite a bit of info; perhaps, not for too long.
We have never seen that little information before. Of course, these people will no longer be found by search engines as soon as their new profiles are indexed.
This means that LinkedIn is pulling information into the deep web. (And that is just days after exposing the newly added “skills” on the profiles on the surface web.) If you search LinkedIn profiles, I strongly suggest expanding your network so that you can see more profiles at least for a while longer.
Any other thoughts or observations?
Comments 6
HI Irina,
Great and relevant article at this point, from my observation companies are willing to spend for the paid recruiter account in linked which i guess can bring faster search results and reduced effort than x-raying.
I use xing recruiter account and its really fast and saves the time for creating xray strings.
So i would say premium accounts can replace xray searches but it again depends on the hiring needs and the willingness for the company to pay for it.
Let me know your thoughts on this.
Best Regards
Vivek
Are we revealing too many open secretes out? LI is listening…. 🙂
Interesting points and discussion from the weekend, but I was just speaking with a colleague here and we noticed that the search provided above is directing you to the “PUB” directory on Yahoo. (ww.linkedin.com/pub/heather-wende/3/28b/2b8) <– Notice the /pub in the yahoo result.
Bing the same thing as yahoo, Altavista the same as Yahoo… Interesting.
That same search on Google takes you to the "IN" directory. (www.linkedin.com/in/stuartrosenthal) <– Google result.
For a short term fix just add site:linkedin.com/in to your yahoo search. The results are different than Google which is the idea, but you get the full profile view.
I do agree though…that functionality if changing. The bigger question is how can LinkedIn justify it's networking revelation to people when they are blocking access to their "networking" profile, simply to make money off of recruiters.
If that happens and free access is revoked, LI will quickly see a mas exodus of interest and usage.
Not sure if Likedin, is using this to persuade recruiters to use recruiter Login. the LI recruiters biggest advantage is not in just finding the person, but also the ease with which we can connect with the candidate using inmails.
I dont see much change to the options of making ones profile public. The Xray, has always been on the public profiles.
The dont need to resort to hiding or restricting public profile views. The LI recruiter is a good enough product to add value outside searching a candidate. They should be concentrating more on making better dashboards and tracking facilities around candidate management.
Interesting, I don’t see the limited results when searching with Google, but I do with Yahoo.
Yes, its coming to end. But I found a way without using “Site:” good results same as x-ray with “site:”
let me know if somebody come up with you new string.