I voted for option #3; I recently tried to work with a technical recruiting agency, and based on my experience, I don't plan on ever doing it again. They were a bunch of email-phobic telephone-happy people who just flung every job in their database at me regardless of what I told them I wanted. A simple keyword-matching algorithm would have been an improvement.

The long version:

It started with a phone call one day; I was very discontented at my (then) job, and I'd contacted a couple of companies on my own already. I got a cold call from a recruiter, and instead of my usual please-go-away response, I decided to see how working with a recruiter might be. I'm already job-hunting; what's the worst that can happen? So, I asked this person (call them Alice) to please email me over some information about jobs they knew about that fit my skill set, and then I hung up.

The next day, instead of an email with jobs in it, I got an email from Alice asking to set up another phone call. I wasn't too happy about this, since I worked in a small, open-plan office and there was no place to make a quick phone call without being overheard, and I didn't want to open that can of worms with my (then) boss. I explained this, but Alice insisted on a phone call, and I caved in.

A few days later, I phoned Alice from a nearby coffee shop (for privacy from my boss). We went over my resume, which was online already; we talked about what kind of jobs I wanted, which I had said before in an email; and Alice said she'd forward my resume on to her colleagues.

Now, I'd thought that since Alice was a recruiter, she'd forward my resume to people with open positions to fill. Not so! This recruiting agency had two parts; recruiters like Alice who went out and found candidates, and other recruiters who worked with hiring managers. Alice had just forwarded my resume to all the hiring-side recruiters. The next morning, by the time I got to work, I had emails from Bob, Carol, Dave, Edna, Fred, and George. Each email talked, in the vaguest possible terms, about "exciting opportunities" with "awesome companies". And each one wanted me to set up another damn phone call.

As if that wasn't annoying enough, four of them had also left me voicemails telling me that they'd sent me email asking to schedule phone calls. In case I'd forgotten how to read, maybe?

Bob wouldn't talk via email; I tried, but he just wouldn't do it. I told Bob that I wanted a job that let me telecommute a day or two per week; he told me that no really profitable company ever let its employees telecommute, but he'd dig around his B-list and see what he could dredge up. Gee, thanks, jerk. Strike one.

Carol also wouldn't talk via email. I told Carol that I wanted a job that let me telecommute a day or two per week; she introduced me to a hiring manager who said, in no uncertain terms, that telecommuting would never happen on his team. Strike two.

Dave would use email, but he kept sending me job after job with no relation to my skills or what I was looking for. Strike three; I'm out. The rest of them were no better anyway.

In the end, it was a big waste of time. Every job they sent me was also posted on the company in question's web site as well as Github Jobs, Craigslist, or some other job board. All the recruiters did is burn up a bunch of my cell minutes and raise my blood pressure.

(Happy ending: I wound up finding an awesome job by talking to some former coworkers of mine.)