Oracle buys Taleo – this might be the best thing that happened to job seekers. Ever. Why? Taleo runs the back end of tons of career sites. And in all fairness does a poor job doing it. Here is where Taleo fails:

1. Taleo is slow
2. Taleo makes it complex to apply for a job

So how can Oracle help? Well Oracle is a database company. They do know how to run web applications blasting fast. Faster than your desktop stuff. But what is even more interesting is that Oracle have been developing their own recruitment applications for years. eRecruit is probably the most know one. By developing their own, and testing it internally, Oracle managed to build one of the best career sites – their own Oracle Carers web site. It has tons of features where there is employees blogging and some really cool stuff, but the most important is the ability to apply to the jobs easily. And that is exactly what Taleo managed to mess up completely.

So the news that Oracle buys Taleo might actually have a far reaching effects. If Oracle gets Taleo ‘right’ all the job hunters will benefit greatly, and we could see the ‘new’ Taleo on even more careers sites than there is today. Oracle’s career site is great, and they have a chance to get that experience via Taleo to a long list of careers sites.