Tracking the looming giant in the recruiting industry that is Google For Jobs can be a full-time job.  The latest is a biggie - GFJ rolled out 4 pretty important features last week, including auto-loading of salary data, bookmarking and better geographic search.  But one feature dwarfs them all - something called "Job Board of Choice Apply", described here by industry insider Joel Cheesman over at ERE:

"This update is by far the most interesting and unique to Google. Basically, if the job you’re viewing is located on multiple job boards, you can select which one you want to use when applying for a job. So, if you already have a Monster account, and have built a resume there, you can select to apply to that job via your Monster account and not, for example, through CareerBuilder or a site where you don’t have an account.

You can also opt to apply directly through a company’s ATS and bypass job boards entirely. Google doesn’t say how it decides the order, but in the screenshot, the company site comes before the job sites. (Again, it’s worth noting Indeed won’t be an option, as long as it chooses not to participate in Google for Jobs.) It’ll be interesting to see if Google will release data around the percentage of people who choose a company website versus a job site." (Capitalist note - Joel follows these trends better than anyone, so go follow him)

Job Board of Choice Apply is a big feature launch on Google For Jobs for a couple of different reasons in my eyes:

1--If you're a job board it would seem easy to wonder when Google's going to screw you and just remove you from the process.  "Job Board Choice of Apply" doesn't prevent that in the future, but Google is throwing a big bone to participating Job Boards (Indeed is the only major one not included at this point) by encouraging candidates to smoothly apply via their profile of choice on an existing platform.

2--This clutters the direct relationship you're used to with Indeed, where the traffic gets pushed directly to your careers site.  As an employer, that doesn't feel great, but at Google, it's not about you, Mr/Mrs. Employer - it's about the end user, which is the candidate.

3--You'd think as a casual observer that a candidate bypassing some of the employer careers site could save themselves time by going with the streamlined apply via a profile they have set up on a job board included on GFJ.  You might be right, you might be wrong.  I searched for jobs at at HeathSouth, then tested the job board apply to an RN position (I'd be a great nurse) via LinkedIn, only to get bogged down by a customized apply via LinkedIN process which walked me through 10+ screens and asked for analog info like my street address and home phone number.

Capitalist note - Do people still have home phone numbers?  I thought the only thing that matter was your gmail email address these days.

4--Google will eventually look at this cluster#### of bad user experience in applying for jobs (even on those job boards) and decide to take over that process for everyone.  Trust me, they'll be there. You can't be for user experience and then look at what I described on the LinkedIn auto-apply (which is not auto at all) without fixing it.  Unless it's about money, at which time all bets are off.

Screenshot of how the "Job Board Choice of Apply" options appear shown below.  Look at the row of options under the title in row marked "Apply"

"Will Jack Kevorkian please report to the ER? Consult with Mr. Indeed needed."