Move Over LinkedIn! Is Identified the Next Big Online Recruiting Tool?

As a recruiter, I have long said someone needs to please create some competition for LinkedIn because it has its share of snafus that make my job difficult (and expensive). Thankfully, it looks as though we may finally have a contender with Identified. Or do we?

Does Identified Have a Chance at Surpassing LinkedIn as the Online Recruiting Tool of Choice?

Identified is interesting in that it is not a social platform like LinkedIn where users create one profile and can select how it is viewed. Identified is an online recruiting tool that uses an AI technology that gleans the web for an individual’s professional data. Without getting too deep into the technology (which you can read more about here), it boasts of the ability to clean up the Web’s “dirty data” and turn it into something useful for recruiters.
Essentially, Identified takes individuals’ Facebook profiles, makes sense of all the data, and converts into a professional profile.

Reasons I Have Trouble “Getting” Identified

This sounds a little too good to be true. An AI technology (called SYMAN) that can clean up information on the web and make it useful for recruiters? Yes, please.
But does it really work? I have my doubts.
Having been to Identified’s website, I do not know much about their pricing structure, so I cannot speak to that, but one issue that Identified does not address is that many people simply do not put their work on Facebook. Prior to my time at OpenView, I made it a point to leave my work interests OFF of Facebook, so if someone had done a search for me back then they would not have found me.
Another foreseeable issue is that Identified ignores the 300 lb gorilla in the room — so far, Facebook recruiting has not been very successful as a professional networking platform (ahem…BranchOut). I, for one, have never used it as a sourcing tool, and I would be slightly skeptical if someone reached out to me on Facebook for a career opportunity. Professionalism is not the reputation that Facebook has.
With Identified, you are only able to see each individual’s public profile also, so you may be reaching out to someone who is not really a fit. You won’t know whether they are at their current employer still, what kinds of skills they have, or even if they are open to networking.
I’m taking the next step and requesting a demo of Identified. Maybe I am missing something about the tool, maybe not. Perhaps as they engage in “cleaning” other social media sites like Twitter etc., Identified will be more enticing.

Have any of you tried Identified?