GOOGLE'S CRAFTY STAR SEARCH.

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Author: Beucke, DanElgin, Ben

E-QUIPS

Google's rep for technology innovation is well known. But the Internet kingpin is also showing an inventive streak in human resources as it competes for an increasingly tight supply of search-programming talent. Google any of the following names: Udi Manber, head of Amazon.com's A9 search subsidiary; Prabhakar Raghavan, Yahoo!'s research head; or Susan Dumais, one of Microsoft's top search researchers. The results page is adorned with a "Work at Google" ad. Such Google employment ads also surface on searches for names of many top academics in search, including W. Bruce Croft, who chairs computer science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

A bold move to snatch away top talent from competitors and academia? In a way, yes. But such Google ads also turn up alongside queries for big-name Google engineers, such as Adam Bosworth and Rob Pike. That indicates Google is less interested in going after these particular individuals than in attracting folks who have an interest in the oft-cited computing gurus. "It's designed to go after the people looking to find us," says Croft, who says such ads have appeared next to his name for "several months." It's a novel recruiting tactic. Amazon.com serves up a similar ad alongside a couple of these names, but Microsoft and Yahoo are nowhere to be found.

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Copyright 2005

PHOTO (COLOR): NET ACE: Google is watching

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By Ben Elgin

Edited by Dan Beucke