Social recruiting: Standout Jobs offer career sites web 2.0 style

Is what has been launched at Standoutjobs a good indicator of how career sites will look in the future?

Clearly Standout Jobs is looking to take a stake in the social networking or 'social recruiting' space that I have already blogged about.  But how well will it fit the corporate market, does it even need to, and most importantly, at the price they are charging, where does that leave the likes of TMP et al when they want to charge zillions for the same?

First of all, I think what they have done is very much in line with how career sites will develop.  Of course there will be copy cats who will spin and twist the service to differentiate themselves from each other although you could argue that they have already done this with the Ning model i.e. spun it into the career site space.  If nothing else, there are a lot of similarities between Ning and Standout.

Second, as the cost of the software comes down, this means 'providers' will have to deliver real value elsewhere.  For example, staying with TMP (no, I don't dislike them) they will of course be able to demonstrate value by helping the client use a very low cost platform to create something that looks unique and leading edge.  But for less able, non-techy type ad agencies, they will start to see the cost of a career site come tumbling down in line with offline advertising spend.

So, well done, good move in the right direction but look out behind you; there are many cowboys on your tail!