SOURCING TIP: Time-traveling with Exalead

Posted by Jim Stroud

January 30, 2007

Shally introduced me to Exalead some time last year, but I never did give it an indepth investigation which is a shame. Its really a nifty little searchengine and one I think will give the big 3 (Google, Yahoo and MSN) a run for the money one day. (But not today…) In the meantime, I think its definitely worth a closer look. For example, check out this little trick I worked out.

tardis, doctor who Let’s say you are looking for a Software Engineer with over 7 years of experience. The conventional wisdom is too look for resumes with your keywords in it and then scan the dates and hope they add up to 7 years or so. Well, I discovered a better way using Exalead’s proximity search. Exalead has search operators that only operate (as far as I know) on Exalead. One of them is the “NEAR” command which looks for words or phrases in close proximity to each other.

For example, you could use this command to find:

stock NEAR exchange
“Michael Jackson” NEAR scandal
“war on terror” NEAR protests

Get it? Well, here is how I am using the same operator.

(inurl:resume OR intitle:resume) “software engineer” NEAR 1999 -jobs -submit -openings

In case you are not hip to boolean commands, let me explain what the above string means. I am asking Exalead to find web documents with “resume” in the title or web address, find the phrase “software engineer” and let it appear near the term “1999.” Finally do not return documents with the keywords jobs, submit and openings. (Afterall, I am only looking for resumes not job postings.)

Exalead has a “preview” function that lets you preview the website search results with highlighted keywords. (To see it, simply click the preview button on the thumbnail image beside each result.) Check out some of my discoveries below and be sure to click each image for a closer look.

Now, does this work perfectly on every occassion? No… (No searchengine is perfect.) However, it does work well enough times to add to your bag of tricks. (Wink) Enjoy…

If you like this sort of thing, be sure to subscribe to my blog as a BIG announcement is coming VERY soon that you will not want to miss. Okay? Cool… Also, check out my “Recruiter Resources” section for books, classes and the like. Finally, if you feel that you need a “personal touch,” reach out to me for some quality time. (Operators are standing by.)

Happy Hunting!

-Jim