The .jobs domain extension has been mentioned on several other sites already, but I haven’t really heard too much discussion about the reality of the new extension. There are some blurps from the some of the media players looking to make cash on the deal-

“.Jobs has the potential of sparking some changes in the online recruiting industry,” said Tom Barrett, president of EnCirca. “Forrester Research Inc estimates that businesses will spend $4.5 billion on job classified ads in 2005 with an efficiency of only 60 percent. This means that over $1.8 billion dollars a year will go to waste. .Jobs promises to eliminate much that waste by providing business with a direct connection to job seekers via the Internet.”

If .Jobs is promising to be a direct connection via the Internet- then they basic idea behind the .jobs is flawed. Providing *another* avenue of listing employment information about your company doesn’t mean it is direct. From a Yellow Page advertising perspective this type of methodology is called “growing the book”- I.E. simply offering another heading to the end advertiser to sell another product.

A very costly product. Several registrars state that these domains will be $125 to $195 annual cost. This is a clear and apparent money grab aimed at companies who are almost desperate to reach new employees and good candidates. This price range makes the .jobs extension one of the most expensive domain types there is (take a look at www.namereality.com to see a quick list of various domain costs).

The fact that SHRM has endorsed a new extension that cost millions of dollars in registration fees rather than a simple extension to a current .com system is very interesting. How many HR professionals are going to rush out and buy a $195 .jobs extension and feel somewhat disheartened by the fact that they could have had jobs.yourcompany.com for free? (sub-domains are typically a free or minimal charge service with most hosting companies). With some planning and communication SHRM could have simply led a campaign for companies to have a consistent HR address across the board.

Rather than .jobs being the answer to a lot of companies needing a solution to recruiting- it seems .jobs is an answer for the domain companies to provide a product that functions nearly identically to some of the other less expensive options already available.