Our business is in a very immature form. To date, the most visible aspects are Job Boards and a few fledgling services that help customers navigate the bewildering array of opportunities. From here, it looks like our industry has made the giant leap of automating the unemployment office. Large databases of jobs, thumbed through by candidates are hardly likely to be the shape of the medium term future. The time is ripe for a well funded player to start making some quiet moves.
Discontinuous change is in the air.
What makes the Peoplesoft news interesting is that it showcases the kinds of competitors and assets that have not yet been fully introduced on to our playing field. Were we Peoplesoft, we'd stop talking to reporters and make sure that the final product was never presented as a company venture. You might remember the huge flap when AOL began using their somewhat smaller database for similar purposes. Though we think that the privacy question is an over-played Red Herring, it's a great big one. Some of the best moves are made quietly.