Hacking job search -- Getting around the recruiter

One of the things we do at jobscout is to generally link directly to postings on the hiring company's career's page. Sometimes, we find an interesting posting by a staffing firm/third party recruiter and want to make sure that it's not a bait-and-switch ad.

For example, today there's a job posting on Monster for an International Product Manager posted by a staffing firm:


Clicking on the posting takes us to the job description:
One way to sniff out the actual company is to search for some unique copy in the posting on Google. In this case searching for the text:

"International Product Manager will play a key role in migrating our highly successful PredictoMobile service into international markets"

...delivers the below results on Google. The second result shows a link to what seems to be the same job description by the actual company on SimplyHired:Clicking on that second result takes us to SimplyHired and shows that the company name is NextWeb Media. The link there takes you to another posting on Monster.
But, a quick search on Google for "NextWeb Media", and voila, you can apply to the job directly via the company's web site and/or do further research to see if there's someone who might be able to refer you to a hiring manager.
I'm not saying that you should always skip the recruiter.. sometimes they might have a better line to the hiring manager than applying directly. But, I will say it's helpful to know that (1) it's a real job and (2) by knowing the company you're able to see if you can find a contact to help put in a referral.

It might seem like a bit more work, but in this economy, it's likely time well spent.