X-Ray search vs. SeekOut search

Some savvy recruiters use X-Ray search on Google or Bing to find profiles. It's a useful technique for bringing back only certain kinds of pages when searching on Google or Bing.

Some savvy recruiters use X-Ray search on Google or Bing to find profiles. It's a useful technique for bringing back only certain kinds of pages when searching on Google or Bing. For example, a Google search for: apple site:linkedin.com/in/ will bring back LinkedIn profiles that mention the word apple.

X-Ray search is limited, however. It finds profiles with particular words on them, but it has no idea where the word is on a page or what it means. The candidate might currently work at Apple, they might have previously worked at Apple, one of their hobbies might be apple-picking, or they could be president of the Fiona Apple fan club. This means you get a lot of random and inappropriate profiles in your results.

Additionally, X-Ray search doesn't support very complicated queries. Google searches don't support the AND operator, parentheses, and other Boolean or advanced search syntax. Google ignores query terms beyond the first 32 terms, so you can't have very long queries.

SeekOut understands the structure of profiles and lets you control how the search works. Use the filters on the left side of the SeekOut page to specify what you're looking for.

Need candidates that work for Apple? Use the Current Company filter. Want someone who used to work at Apple? Use the Past Company filter. Someone who is an expert at Apple Software? Use the Skills filter. You can even search for Fiona Apple fans with the Hobbies filter.

Give it a try. You'll see much more relevant and focused results from SeekOut's powerful search filters.