Multiple sources are reporting that Google is in acquisition talks with vertical job search engine Simply Hired. According to alarm:clock

Simply Hired almost seems like it was built to be acquired by Google. Its angels are GOOG angels, its based in Mountain View, it targets the long tail and landed a MySpace deal, and Google doesn’t have a job search tool.

Simply Hired has raised $17.7 million to-date from Fox Interactive Media and Foundation Capital and is led by Gautam Godhwani, who previously founded AtWeb, an Internet Optimization site and successfully sold it to AOL in 1998.

Simply Hired competes with Indeed another job search engine which is backed by New York Times, and has a much larger user base than Simply Hired. However Simply Hired recently entered into strategic partnerships with MySpace and LinkedIn to power job search on these sites.

Joshua Jaffe however is SimplySkeptical and thinks that Simply Hired will most probably be bagged by Fox Interactive Media with New York Times absorbing Indeed. He is citing Google’s acquisition history as an example with just two search focused companies getting on the list. Something that rings true with Google since search is its core strength.