Climbing to Nowhere?

Has anybody reading this (either one of you) had any experience with Climber.com? If so, does it seem as pointless to you as it does me?

Disclosure: Some months back I signed up for the limited, free version of Climber.com. Maybe the stuff you have to pay for is more useful, or pertinent. But my observation to date, from the regular Job Alert Newsletters it sends me, is that it's pretty off-point.

For instance, the Job Alert Newsletter for July 1 lists among the "Freshest Jobs on the Net" (!) "targeted" for me based on the information that I provided when I filled out my profile, "Managing Editor Jobs in SOUTH DAKOTA (16 New)." Wow--sixteen new Managing Editor positions right here in South Dakota. Who knew? Well, I was a magazine managing editor in a past life, so obviously the category is spot on.

So I click through to the "fresh" listings. There's a bunch of them, all right...but only one is actually in South Dakota. And on the other end of the state at that, but it's nothing to complain about since the newsletter promised positions in this state, not my town. But the other listings...here's one in Houston. Here's one in Minneapolis. Here's a "self-funded" job in Des Moines. Here's one in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Oh, and there's only seven listed, not sixteen.

Not all that helpful, really.

But more helpful than another, somewhat enigmatic listing, "Mac Jobs in SOUTH DAKOTA (15 New)." No idea what a Mac Job is, but I suppose it has to do with my being a Macintosh computer owner of long standing. Could be fun. So I click through..

Your search - Mac - did not match any jobs.

Um, okay. Then what's the deal with the "Mac Jobs in SOUTH DAKOTA (15 New)" you were telling me about in the Job Alert Newsletter? Further, what's the deal with the helpful "suggestion" you offer:

Suggestions:

• - Make sure all words are spelled correctly.

• - Try different keywords.

• - Try more general keywords.

Yes, nothing brightens your day like being given suggestions to improve "your" search when in fact it was their search that didn't work.

So it is that Climber.com doesn't strike me as any sort of useful tool. If the idea is to get me to pay money to see the good stuff, then perhaps they should take a leaf from Classmates.com and NamesDatabase.com, which are forever telling me that people have searched for me and they'll tell me who those people are if I give them money. Climber.com doesn't tell me it's found my dream job and will share the info with me in return for cash; it tells me it's found a suitable (indeed, "fresh") job, then gives it the lie when I go to check on it. Some kind of strange, sick ongoing April Fool's joke, perhaps?

Back to the original query, then: Anyone had any experience with Climber.com? If so, was it a useful experience? Or am I right in my belief that I might as well pull the plug on it?