Recent Job Searches

Posted By: Thomas, 6:44pm Wednesday 28 April 2010

There was a function added to MyCareer's new homepage last week I seemed to have missed. While it's not uncommon for job boards to record (and display) your recent job searches, this one caught my eye.

Conduct a keyword search on MyCareer, then come back the next day and you will notice your previous searches are "re-searched" with the number of new jobs listed next to your recent searches. Smart!

Technically. The recent search is stored as a cookie in the clients’ browser.

But what if we wanted to create smarter job boards? Let's say you wanted to use THAT recent search cookie created on MyCareer to automatically personalise and conduct a job search on another job board?

Nope. Unfortunately it’s not possible. This is what we call "Same Origin Policy" (SOP). It is a security measure used in the web browser to protect the confidentiality and integrity of information. Same Origin Policy prevents a web site's scripts from accessing and interacting with scripts used on other sites.

HTTP cookies are dependent on the Same Origin Policy to ensure that sensitive information held about a certain user's activity pertains only to one site. Requiring scripts to be from the same site, or have the same origin, in order to interact with each other without restriction allows browsers to maintain user sessions securely without user re-authentication.

Damm. Back to the drawing board.