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In the hot and heavy world of executive recruiting, less sometimes is more. Of course, the “more” has to really be more — as in more (and better) candidates with longer staying power. And not all executive-recruiting sites are created equal. (Who hasn’t seen the Ladders tennis ball commercial, after all)?

Then there is RiteSite.com, which is to bells and whistles what Sparta was to Greek hedonists. Aimed at C-suite executives, the site is clunky and extremely non-intuitive – especially compared to sleeker, more streamline executive boards like eKornFerry.com or Heidrick & Struggles.

Obfuscation is part of the business plan at RiteSite, which was founded by Manhattan executive recruiter John Lucht in 2001 — about the same time executive-recruiting websites were gaining momentum. Lucht fashioned the site to give C-level execs another option among the job-board scrimmage. Only execs looking for their next $100,000-plus gig need apply. They get membership to RiteSite.com for a yearly fee of $94 — the same amount Lucht used to pay his secretary years ago to put together recruiting lists. For that nominal sum, members get e-mail alerts, job-hunting advice and other free information every week.

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Gobble, gobble.

That’s the sound you just heard as Taleo (profile; site) swooped in and gobbled up Vurv Technology (profile; site) for approximately $128.8 million in cash and stock.

Taleo says it opted to acquire Vurv to enhance its position in talent management and be able to meet the growing market demand for talent management solutions.

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Challenging the Google Gods…

The new Fetch Footprint is promising recruiters “deep Web extraction technologies,” which is a really fancy way of saying the company will scour public-data sources and lurk on social/professional networking sites to gather information.

The company’s president, ex-ADP exec Jerry Thurber, says Footprint is designed to intelligently parse data relevant to hiring decisions.

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For a company that must be happy to put 2007 in the past, this week’s Peopleclick user conference seems well-attended (about 175 registered), in a stunningly pretty but not-too-accessible oceanfront Ritz in Orange County … Ed Newman asked the crowd, “Who thinks their company is doing a decent job of workforce planning?” and maybe two hands in the whole audience went up, sheepishly … John Sullivan lists some of his favorite companies for workforce planning: Microsoft (partly because of its willingness to move people to partner companies), Intel, Aimco, Booz Allen (for its strength in moving people internally), Valero, and Sodexo … At lunch, one customer tells ERE that Peopleclick’s VMS is improving enough that he feels like he could someday scrap Fieldglass, which he says offers inferior reporting … A Peopleclick partner says the apparent recession isn’t all that severe; meanwhile, CareerBuilder, as usual, didn’t seem to be tight on money either, as evidenced by the money it spent on a martini party … Who cares that the labor market is tight in Montana? Peopleclick client GlaxoSmithKline does, as it has critical operations there and is playing up the lack of traffic and outdoorsy lifestyle to candidates.

Neal Bruce, who recently departed Monster to join the Bedford, Massachusetts, office of First Advantage, will serve as the senior vice president of product management for the Employer Services division. He chatted with ERE about innovating in his new gig, his renewed focus on talent acquisition products, his blog, his legacy at Monster, and more.

ERE: Congrats on the move to First Advantage! Were you looking for a new opportunity, or were you pursued?

NB: I received a call about joining First Advantage, and the timing was right for me to take on a new challenge.

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Get schooled on background screening…

employeescreenIQ (profile; site) says its recently launched employeescreen University provides free background-screening information aimed to help organizations make better hiring decisions.

The interactive learning tool is designed specifically for human resource, risk-management, and security professionals. It features a free newsletter, employment screening news compiled from international sources, U.S. legislative news updates, industry white papers, background-screening media resources, and upcoming industry events.

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Vurv Technology (profile; site) this week officially unveiled its new Vurv Perform 4.0, an on-demand solution designed to engage employees and improve retention.

Derek Mercer, the company’s founder and CEO, recently chatted with ERE about a product he hopes will be “intuitive and accessible to everyone” to give everyone a role in a company’s performance.

Specifically, Mercer notes that key enhancements from Vurv’s previous performance management offerings include succession tools for gap analysis and development plans; job modeling tools; and goal management capabilities, among other features.

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Former Vice President of Alliances for Monster (profile; site) Neal Bruce is headed to the First Advantage team, according to several reports.

One high-level First Advantage executive spoke on condition of anonymity on Wednesday, and on Thursday, Rena Levin wrote on the Hire Calling blog that Bruce would, in fact, be joining the company’s ATS team. The rumor started swirling on Tuesday, when Joel Cheesman announced it on his blog.

Levin wrote that while at Monster, Bruce “brought such a wealth of knowledge to the table. Monster customers sought out his opinions and trusted his vision. I had a great deal of success when the product was under his direction. My career path eventually lead me to First Advantage Corporation and I’m so thrilled to say Neal is joining our ATS team here. I can’t believe Monster let him go. He is such a valuable asset. He will certainly have a dramatic and positive impact here at First Advantage.”

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The corporate site http://www.peopleclick.com has been down, for at least a substantial part of today.

A job search at least for one of its clients seems to not be working either.

Now that Manpower has announced its plans to acquire recruitment process outsourcing leader CRI, the company is revealing more tidbits about its decision to strengthen its presence in the rapidly growing RPO market.

According to Kirsten Corbell, RPO product manager at Manpower, CRI will operate under Manpower Business Solutions, a line of customized recruiting initiatives in over 20 countries worldwide.

She says CRI has experience delivering a “high-touch candidate experience” and branding their clients as employers of choice. CRI started in 1997 by Ladd and Julie Richland, and its client base now includes Fortune 1000 and emerging growth companies. It was recently named Top RPO firm for the third consecutive year by HRO Today magazine.

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Manpower is buying recruitment-outsourcing vendor CRI, a Los Angeles company that CEO Ladd Richland has kept somewhat under the radar.

The folks over at Zoho are offering a free beta trial of its new Zoho People product, which Web Worker Daily says is “clearly overkill if you have only a few employees; it’s aimed at companies who have 30, 50, or more employees and a continuing string of job openings to keep track of.”

Zoho People offers things like employee files, workflow tracking of the hiring process, travel requests, employee announcements, multiple levels of security, and an employee portal.

It features automated checklists that triggers a sequence of tasks on a specific action like create/edit/approve of a request to complete a business process. It also enables your employees to keep track of the progress of their requests.

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LinkedIn Recruiter hit the market on Monday, and the five-year-old company is feeling confident that recruiters will like what they see.

Among other features, the product allows users to group candidates in folders and tag them with comments. This means that corporate staffing departments can know immediately whether someone on the team has reached out to a potential candidate.

In 2007, the Mountain View, California-based company hired George Seiters as its senior director of corporate solutions in product marketing. Seiters spent the better part of last year working on LinkedIn Recruiter, a product he says will “revolutionize the process of online recruiting for corporate staffing professionals.”

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Monster and iHispano announced an alliance this week that uses Monster’s job search technology through iHispano’s network of career channels.

As one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population, Hispanics account for approximately 17.5 million workers in the United States. The two companies say this relationship will provide a stronger pipeline of candidates representing a broad range of talent.

Chicago-based iHispano.com says it reaches more than one million Hispanic professionals. These career channel partners include iHispano, the National Society of Hispanic MBAs, the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting, the National Hispanic Business Association, the Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, and Latina Style Business Magazine Online.

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The company has seen its share of bad news, but not today.

ChoicePoint is being bought by the British company that owns LexisNexis. ChoicePoint’s stock is up dramatically today, about 43%.

Workstream is being bought in a merger with Empagio, a provider of payroll and human resources software, resulting in the only human capital management provider with a payroll services capability across North America.

Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Florida-based Empagio will own 75% and Ottawa-based Workstream will own 25%.

Wednesday’s announcement also means that analyst Jason Corsello’s prediction last month was more than a hunch. He said Empagio would become Workstream’s suitor — and his prediction was based on a variety of factors.

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Now here’s a handy new feature from iCIMS: A report card.

If you’re an iCIMS client you’ll be getting a twice-annual checkup on how your use of the company’s talent management system compares to other iCIMS clients. Here’s what the company’s press release says: “The 60-point Report Card is a full audit on a client’s usage of iRecruiter benchmarked against iCIMS’ growing customer base.”

Are you thinking this is just what you need? Yet another way to remind you of your recruitment shortcomings and even a grade to compare you with the so-called “Best of Breed.” Not to worry. You get the report, not your mom or your boss, unless, of course they insist.

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You heard it here before: Jason Goldberg is leaving Jobster.

Today, a new report out has investment banker Jeff Seely replacing Goldberg and says Goldberg will serve as Jobster vice chairman of the board.

There are a couple of new job sites for recruiters to choose from.

The first is foliocareers.com, and covers circulation, production, and editorial jobs in the magazine industry.

Also launching: eventcareers.com, for design and management jobs in the event-planning/trade-show industry.

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Nate Swanson of ThinkEquity Partners came out with a bullish report about Taleo, saying that the company is signing a lot of four-year deals, where previously it was signing three-year deals.

Swanson says Taleo has opportunities internationally, among small- and medium-size businesses, and with its new performance-management product.

On the topic of “turnover vs. new jobs,” he writes:

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