These guys are spoiling for a fight.

Just as the classified ad market was ‘stolen’ from newspapers by an upstart in San Francisco with a list server not a printing press –which is what Craigslist is after all –the employment + career solutions business has many forces aligned against it.

Monster revolutionized the career management, recruitment and talent search business when it first arrived on the scene in 1994.  I liked Monster so much (I was once hired away from a company thanks to Monster) I featured it in an article in 2006. Then the story was about the shift in search, and how your next job could find you, instead of the other way around.

There has been lots of coverage of the job boards and recruiting recently.

In Businessweek, a very timely piece on how the challenges are coming fast and furious from social networking site LinkedIn, and other social media Davids that threaten Goliath, um, Monster.

In the Wall Street Journal, the focus was about the software and the relevance of job boards.

Not far behind, however is Twitter that’s anecdotally turning into a recruitment tool as well. Lots of advice out there, for sure. Ever heard of Twitjobs UK? Guess what? They have a … LinkedIn presence !