Donna Bogatin has called Yahoo out on her blog at ZDNet.  For what, you might ask?  She discovered a Craigslist classified listing from Yahoo for a position in it's Yahoo HotJobs department.  It's funny not only because HotJobs is itself a hiring and recruiting tool, but also because Yahoo touts HotJobs as the #1 place to connect with job seekers.  So I have to admit that it's a little on the funny side to see them using another classified services - a free one, in fact - to advertise for their position.

 

But is it really that shocking?

 

Even the best employment site out there isn't going to reach everyone.  And I'm not saying HotJobs really is the #1 employment site on the web.  But say that it was.  Realistically… should Yahoo really be that embarrassed about using Craigslist?  I don't think so.

 

Craigslist has a very strong following… a following that Yahoo probably doesn't see much traffic from.  So it only makes good sense to use as many services as possible to try and find the best person for the job.  Exposure is good when you're trying to find a needle in a haystack (one person out of millions).

 

In fact, I think it was kind of smart for Yahoo to advertise on Craigslist.

 

The people searching for jobs on Craigslist are going to see that ad… and then possibly decide to give HotJobs a try.  With any luck, they'll find it useful enough to use again.  It'd be like Yahoo buying ads on Google… or vice versa.  Or, to use another example, do a Yahoo search for "blogger" and you find paid ads for TypePad.  Big deal.

 

Yahoo is reaching out to a community of job seekers that might not be familiar with their service.  And they're doing it in a way that fits in with that community and couldn't be construed as "spammy" or shady.  I don't see the big deal.