Facebook Shouldn't Launch a Job Site (But Probably Will)

The digerati is abuzz over a recent Wall Street Journal story claiming Facebook is close to launching its own job board. In case you missed it:

• Techcrunch
• Barron's
• WSJ (subscription)

Why does this alleged move even make sense? Well, when you have a billion users and you've just gone public, I guess you look around for revenue as fast and as easily as you can. 

Considering fellow 'social network' LinkedIn has a stock that's up 60 percent this year, they seem like an easy target to mimic. Craigslist, another Valley success story, is said to be a $100 million dollar company annually.

So, let's combine the two, right? Magic happens ... or not.

I'll go on record and say this is a terrible idea, regardless of what form it could take. Big destination sites getting into the classifieds game has a long history of mediocrity. Anyone remember Google Base, eBay's Kijiji (now eBay Classifieds), MySpace Jobs (powered by Simply Hired), or Yahoo! HotJobs (acquired by Monster)?

And let's not forget Facebook already has a bevy of job search apps that are more-or-less ghost towns or have since been buried, including ones by Indeed.com, Simply Hired and CareerBuilder. Oh, and they already have a Marketplace powered by Oodle, which includes aggregated job postings. And Branchout has their own share of issues.

Tinkering in this segment just doesn't work and big numbers don't guarantee success. Frankly, I'd be floored if Facebook launches some sort of job board, but the pressure of Wall Street may dictate otherwise. History, however, is not on their side.