LinkedIn gets a new competitor: Connectifier

LinkedIn has been reigning in the social network space when it comes to connecting working professionals. Recruitment has been a major usp of the site. Now, another site called Connectifier is threatening to usurp it from its numero uno position.

Connectifier uses powerful search algorithms, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities thus proving to be an effective tool for recruiters and hiring managers. It was founded by two ex-Google engineers, and is a recruiter-side tool that's designed to combine advanced search capabilities, AI, big data analytics and machine learning to better assist recruiters looking for IT talent.

"The problem we saw with sites like LinkedIn and Monster.com and others is -- they're really siloed. Candidates can submit resumes and information about themselves, but many times that's out of date and not relevant. With Connectifier, the Web search capabilities can crawl around and aggregate up-to-the-minute data on potential candidates, even passive ones, and create our own profiles," says John Jersin, Connectifier's CEO and co-founder.

“It's similar to, but more effective than LinkedIn's new AI-based matching system”, Jersin says. “These systems depend on data to successfully match candidates with available roles, so, the more data the better. While Connectifier and LinkedIn currently have approximately the same number of people in their databases -- 380 million -- Connectifier has around 30 percent more data points per person, and hopes to have 100 percent more by the end of calendar year 2015”, the company states.

All candidate data is indexed from public sources in much the same way a search engine like Google would, including elements like hobbies, interests, professional and personal relationships, and online social interaction information. “That makes it a much more effective way to determine a candidates fit”, Jersin says. The company says that its technology is delivering recruiters between two and four times the number of potential candidates than LinkedIn, based on number of messages sent to candidates.

"This is a huge problem in recruiting, and there hasn't been a lot of innovation in the space over the last few years. Yes, users can post resumes, portfolios and such, and can even opt in to 'passive' recruiting sites, but that's still not exactly 'passive.' That information quickly becomes outdated, or it's not an inclusive view of a candidate. We are breaking out of that siloed approach to find out how people are interacting professionally, who they're engaging with, if they're answering questions in their communities or posting code on GitHub, so we can establish a more holistic view of them," Jersin says.