Hire by Google yesterday launched a beta version of candidate discovery, its intuitive search capability that helps recruiters identify and re-engage known candidates. Product Manager Omar Eduardo Fernández announced the launch in a blog post.  

Google launched Hire in July. The recruiting app integrates with G Suite apps like Gmail and Google calendar.

The new capability enables recruiters to create short lists of past candidates who may be a fit for new positions.

Candidate discovery creates a prioritized list of past candidates who may be a fit for new positions, based on how their profile matches to the title, job description and location.

“Hire by Google is the latest in a series of products and services Google has launched in the job search space,” said Staffing Industry Analysts Research Manager David Francis. While people aggregation is not a new technology, in theory given Google’s search and artificial intelligence capabilities, they may be able to provide a unique approach in recruiting passive/pre-identified candidates, and will certainly add some spice to an already exciting and innovative space.”

According to Hire, candidate discovery understands the intent of what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for. “It takes a search phrase like ‘sales manager Bay Area’ and immediately understands the skills and experiences relevant to that job title, as well as which cities are part of the Bay Area,” Fernández wrote. “That means the search results will include candidates with sales management skills even if their past job titles are not an exact keyword match.”

Recruiters can search and filter based on previous interactions with the candidate, such as the type of interview feedback they received or whether a job offer was previously extended to them. Candidates with positive feedback will rank higher in search results than those without, and candidates who received an offer in the past but declined it will rank higher than those who were previously rejected. 

VentureBeat reported the new feature is a move by Google to compete more closely with companies like Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, which offer candidate search capabilities to companies that are trying to find the right people to fill their job openings.

Hire targets the G Suite SMB audience. The majority of its customers are in-house recruiters and their respective hiring teams, including hiring managers and interviewers.

“Hire [was designed] for this business use case, although it does have some staffing firms and agencies using the product,” Meagan Hency, product marketing at Hire, told Staffing Industry Analysts.