Newest Internet Domain Name — .Jobs — to Be Unveiled Soon
Aug. 24–Thousands of companies worldwide will go online with a new jobs-related Web domain over Labor Day weekend, but word about it hasn’t reached some of central Ohio’s largest employers.
A Cleveland company is licensing .jobs, a domain specifically designed for employers to find job seekers.
Ray Fassett, founder of Employ Media and the domain name, said the idea for .jobs came to him about five years ago when he was working for a career fair and using a lot of Web addresses that included .jobs.
“It occurred to me that it would be a lot better if .jobs was to the right of the dot instead of to the left,” Fassett said.
He took the idea to Tom Embrescia, chairman and chief executive of Employ Media.
The two then began attending meetings of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees Internet domains, found a sponsor, and eventually took steps to license the domain, which included paying a $45,000 application fee to ICANN.
“We assured ICANN that we had the resources and responsibility to ensure the safety and stability of the Internet,” Embrescia said.
The domain will allow companies to streamline their hiring activities and provide an easier path for job seekers, he said.
Gary Rubin, an executive with the Society of Human Resource Management, an Alexandria, Va.-based group that sponsored Employ Media’s application, said finding a link to jobs on a company’s Web site sometimes can be a scavenger hunt.
“If it does nothing else, it makes it easy for (job seeekers and companies) to find each other.”
Registrations for a .jobs domain have been accepted since June 19, and the first companies are expected to go online Labor Day weekend.
Battelle is one central Ohio company that has registered, but spokesman Mark Berry said the initial intent is to protect its name.
“We wanted to keep our brand,” he said. “We wanted to raise the profile for job searchers, just in case .jobs turns into the .com for the job process.”
Embrescia predicts that’s exactly what .jobs will do.
“.Com is the highway that everybody travels on now. (.Jobs is) a new highway.”
Jim Mazzola, spokesman for Cardinal Health Inc., said Cardinal plans initially only to evaluate the concept.
Jeff Lyttle, spokesman for Bank One, said that company is looking at the new domain but hadn’t made a decision.
Fassett said the immediate task for Employ Media is to get the word out to employers about the domain.
“It’s a daunting task to inform the whole world,” he said, adding that acceptance of .com took five to seven years.
Companies wishing to register a .jobs name must pay a registrar a fee plus a one-time validation charge that together range from $158 to $293.
The validation charge goes toward ensuring that the company seeking the name has rights to use it, Embrescia said.
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