I have been in the jobsite business since 1999 and also the domain name business about the same time. The ability to reach jobseekers and employers online using niche domain names obviously has worked since he beginning of the internet.
When I saw that .jobs was being introduced in 2005, I did not know what to make of it. The domain extension was limited to corporations or business entities and one could register their companyname.jobs for about $100 a year. The idea was that corporations and even recruiters could create a website with the .jobs extension to list their openings. But having been exposed to numerous new domain extensions that have been released since 1999, I was skeptical of this. Considering that .com had the first mover advantage and new domain extensions had to overcome a whole lot to catch up.
At the end of the day, if you had an existing corporate brand and had a huge marketing budget, you can get away with your .jobs website. But small operators (typical recruiter) will have trouble promoting this extension for their website, considering they would get very little internet traffic through the major search engines or through type-in. I would venture out and say that even only a small portion of HR folks understand that a .jobs extension exists and most jobseekers are not keeping up to speed on the multitudes of domain extensions that have been introduced.
Some interesting links are provided that are related to the .jobs topic.
Click here to view .jobs websites listed in a Google search
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2005/06/20/daily1.html?jst=b_ln_hl
http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/recruitment-technology/checking-in-on-the-jobs-domain-8341
http://techdirt.com/articles/20050408/1316215.shtml
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x58150.xml
http://myhrblog.blogspot.com/2004/12/recruiting-in-future.html
