Google Profiles Enhanced to be More “Social” AKA More Descriptive: Time to Add to Your Names Sourcing / Leads Sourcing Basket

I actually noticed this a few weeks back as I began sourcing names / leads using Google Profiles but it seems that Google has begun blogging about these changes Essentially, Google has decided to make these changes to help search become more social, or, as they state, "...to make search more personal with relevant web content from your friends and online contacts.”  

Sure, that’s the way THEY see it, but as name sourcers / researchers we see it as potential gold!!

Like any source, this can result in a hit or a miss, but if done right, you WILL find names / leads to use in your recruiting.  Just as with LinkedIn though, remember that not everyone has a Google Profile set up and hence, this is not a magic bullet killer names sourcing resource. 

I’ll make this one simple because, well, it is simple!

You’ll essentially be doing a site search or an x-ray search  - site:www.google.com/profiles

You can also do this intitle: search - intitle:"google profile"   as this is the generic text assigned to each profile and is placed after each persons’ name.  But, you decide…either way will work.

As always, to narrow down the results and filter out noise, add keywords or keyword phrases based on the roles you’re searching - site:www.google.com/profiles “mechanical engineering” autocad "project engineer”

(JUST AN EXAMPLE!!!  THIS CAN BE CHANGED IN MANY WAYS!!)

If people have added those keywords to the “About Me” section of their Google Profile, they will show up in the results.  In addition, people can add information to such fields as “Companies I've worked for,” and, even better, they can make public a descriptive title that includes what they do and where they do it.  So, for example, “Chemical Engineer at …..”  Los Angeles.  Google makes seeing this easy by providing this information in the search engine results directly under the name of the person AND, in the text of the result.  So, you’ll see it fairly easy.

So, because of this enhancement, you can easily add descriptive keywords or phrases, and even locations, companies and titles.  In other words – you can quickly locate people to network with (or maybe place) for your recruiting specs.  You never know…you may just find the right fit or the right lead!

Good luck!