Are you struggling to find more matching potential candidates in LinkedIn Recruiter? The reason may be that you are using some search fields that restrict your results without your knowledge. I see two reasons for the search algorithm to challenge us: The original, kept in place, profile data design does not work well with the actual data that members enter, …
Enjoy the Operators While They Last #OSINT
The LinkedIn hidden search operators are back! Nobody knows for how long they will work this time (we enjoyed them for a year and a half a while ago). But they offer any LinkedIn user, whether basic or paid, significant searching power and an important filter unavailable with any subscription. LinkedIn never documented the operators, apart from the less-useful …
How to Google for Partial Words in URLs #OSINT
You cannot Google for a part of a word. (The Asterisk * means one or a few words in Google’s search syntax.) However, using the wonderful Google Custom (or Programmable) Search Engines (CSEs), you can search for partial words in the URLs. The way to do so is to take advantage of CSE URL templates. There, the Asterisk means “part …
Part of Github Just Went Private
Social Networks want to be found, so they make some information – most notably, profiles – public, visible to search engines. At the same time, they want members to join and sometimes pay for the search. They also worry about their members’ data privacy. It is a balance for each site – which pages and how much info to let …
Did You Know? Ten Google Tips for #OSINT Research
Here are ten less-known facts about Google search. (How many of these are you aware of? There are some subtleties there.) You can restrict page dates either by selecting them under “Tools” after searching or using the operators before: and after:. However, you will be missing the pages that did not clearly tell Googlebot about their dates. Lots of public …
X-Ray for US Profiles: Solved
This Custom Search Engine – bit.ly/LinkedIn-US – searches for US-based LinkedIn profiles only. You can try to fool it, searching by a location in another country, but the results will stay on target. How does it do that? X-Ray practitioners know that we can narrow to a country – any but the US – using a two-letter country abbreviation, …
Virtual Travel for More Matching Results
Google has several location-related settings affecting the search results: It relies on your IP address to figure out your location, even if you search in incognito You can set a country (“region”) in the Advanced Search Dialog You can set a language, and if it is not English, the setting will positively affect searching in that country. (Google also has …
A Tool, a Hack, a Link, and a Site
David Galley and I are obsessed with tools, hacks, links, and sites. On our Slack, we have a channel called “Interesting Links” that gets populated nearly daily. Where do we get the info? Facebook Groups, Recruiting Brainfood Newsletter, shares in Messenger by colleagues, tweets with the hashtag #OSINT, RSS feeds from selected sources, and always, Googling. Once in a while, …
These Keywords Are Not on the Job Description
For leadership roles, a professional’s value is aligned with their ability to solve problems, thus allowing the company’s further growth. If a job description calls for a leader, you would be searching for profiles with keywords like leadership, growth, expansion, etc., synonymic to the words in the requirements. (Expect another post soon BTW.) However, a true problem solver will also …
Three Topics? And Nine Tools
Happy New Year, readers, and thanks for following my blog! What would you like me to write about? Please name three topics or questions of interest in the comments – thanks! In the meantime, here is some recent news. 1. Google launches Question Hub – https://questionhub.withgoogle.com – to allow everyone to “answer” questions by submitting URLs. I imagine Google will …