Dembot: Dembot - Why Mahalo is Fundamentally Flawed
sbspalding
· 2 years ago
I figured I would point this out here in case you don't make it back to the blog.
1) I never linked to Mahalo (check the link, it goes to calacanis.com)
2) I linked back to your blog and more particularly this post.
3) If you are questioning my objectivity might I suggest you follow the link to my review of Mahalo. I don't have a personal vendetta against it but I am in no way a strident supporter.
With that being said, I am not by any stretch of the imagination a journalist. I am just commenting on the defensiveness and politics that I am witnessing in the blogosphere. Thanks for the time.
andrewbaron
· 2 years ago
Wow, this is getting REALLY interesting.
I cant help but notice that I usually get about 0 comments, or sometimes a few, but this thread gets so many comments in bursts all at once, way after the post is past due.
If anyone wants to take notice, there are many comments left by Dr. Mani which is the same person that left several comments under the name William Tildesley.
Listen to how "convinced" and "passionate" about Mahalo these commenters are too. Its as if they work for Mahalo or "something".
Derek
· 2 years ago
For the record, I follow Calacanis on twitter. He posted your story.
Richard
· 2 years ago
I don't work at Mahalo. Met him once, and have chatted online maybe one other time.
marcfiszman
· 2 years ago
I know it's cool to call Jason a prat (some of you tech people are oh so tiresome), but as far as I'm concerned, he's one of the most insightful web entrepreneurs out there. When certain people speak, you ought to listen. IMHO, Jason is such a person.
Give Mahalo a chance, eh? It's really only just launched and is already pretty sweet.
(Great stuff on TWiT btw, Jason.)
Andrew Shell
· 2 years ago
Personally, I really like Mahalo. I'm not your average mom or pop either. I'm a 26 year old computer programmer. I have no problem finding things on Google but the way I see it, when using Mahalo I don't have to filter through things as much.
I particularly like the Internet Zeitgist section because it allows me to find cool things I might not come across yet. That's how I discovered Chocolate Rain.
I also really like it for current events because they have gone through and found links that cover the different angles on the story. Plus for breaking news I know that I can just go to the Mahalo page and all the newest info will be there because someone at Mahalo is following it for me.
For the record I don't work for Mahalo, in fact I work for an SEO company.
Richard
· 2 years ago
I hate to defend Jason -- I'd imagine it's more fun rattling his cage -- but I think your argument isn't valid.
The main point you make is that Mahalo can not be trusted because it makes money from advertising. You seem to suggest that they get paid every time you click a link, which I just don't see on Mahalo. The links I've clicked when using Mahalo have been internal, or those that appear to be unpaid links, not adverts. I'm sure they make money from some obvious adverts, like other sites.
So, the reason I think your argument isn't valid is that every prominent search engine makes money from clicks. We can't complain that people make money, we all need it to continue running the business.
So, your rational would suggest all prominent search engines are reckless.
jeffmcneill
· 2 years ago
Hallelujah brother, say it like it iz!
Karoli
· 2 years ago
I gave it a positive review here. I realize I'm not an A-lister or anything, but I'm a user and it worked for the purpose we wanted it to work for.
I went back to Mahalo after your post here and had difficulty finding tose misleading links.
On the other hand, I'm fairly ticked at Google for the crap search results I've gotten since they shook up their algorithm again -- I'm back to picking through their search results to get past the content scrapers.
Is Mahalo a Google replacement? no. But it's not meant to be. Is it useful? Yes.
Now I'm going back to find those advertisement links.
Jimmy CraicHead
· 2 years ago
Well Jason is a good sport I must say.
Jason
· 2 years ago
well, in the face of lies and absurdity you don't really have many options. It's either ignore or amuse yourself. :-)
neovids
· 2 years ago
amusing...
Jimmy CraicHead
· 2 years ago
Jason was really insulting to many of us at Yahoo Video group with his original question. Most of us do it as a hobby and I felt very patronized that like we as a group could help him. He fooled a few though. Non the less, I took a peek at Mahalo at work last night, (only 99,000 more views needed) and was insulted again. In all due respect, I was unable to view Mahalo Daily due to computer restrictions but did look into the "What is Mahalo" and to quote
"We take the time to find and organize the best links for search terms, so you don't have to. With traditional search engines you need to figure out the right search term and find relevant results within an unorganized list that often contains irrelevant results, spam, and some mediocre sites." WTF? Are we so stupid with Google? Jason, your going down with that Jive ass Adam Curry and Podshow. John Coffey
jasoncalacanis
· 2 years ago
Wow... not sure where to start. I know you're upset at me offering a Amanda a job after she left rocketboom, and that you're peeps with Dave Winer and think that I treated him unfairly after he heckled me... but come on. This is a little silly.
Anyway, I'll try to respond.
>> the mission of Mahalo was not born out of an idea >> to help improve the lives of others
Actually, that is the EXACT mission of Mahalo. Our tag line is "we're here to help."
The concept was born out of the realization that search results were getting very cluttered with bad sites, average sites, and even dangerous sites. Also, the number of good, great, and amazing sites has been increasing.
The result? There is simply too much information to sort through. If you do a search for Paris Hotels on Mahalo, Google, Yahoo, and Ask you'll see clearly that our result is the cleanest, spam free, and most helpful result hands down.
Why? Well, we paid a human with a passion for travel and the kindness to help people to spend five to ten hours making that result better. When Google, Yahoo, and Ask stop working that's when we start.
In fact, many of the folks working on Mahalo come from the Wikipedia community!
>> Everytime a user clicks on an ad, they are being >> taken to information that is promotionally paid for >> as opposed to being there because it is the most valuable.
You understand that the links we select are not paying right? We use the exact same business model as Google--in fact we use their advertising network! All the ads are clearly labeled as such. The ads are targeted and they take up < 3% of the page design (probably the lowest in the search industry!).
>> Mahalo is fundamentally flawed because it’s >> purpose is to provide useful, valuable information >> about a specific subject matter, but ultimately so >> that users who are looking for that information >> will be lead astray by clicking on less relevant >> advertising.
That's factually incorrect. The goal is to provide valuable information, yes. However, the goal is not to lead users astray with the advertisements. Far from it. The goal is to, like Google, put highly relevant advertisements on the page that the users might actually want/find useful.
That being said, high-quality free services have been ad-supported for a long time. Isn't that how Rocketboom works as well? You guys have advertisers and they pay for the audience that you've created with your product?
best jason
andrewbaron
· 2 years ago
You can say whatever you want but its pretty clear to me there is no match with what you say and what we have actually seen.
jasoncalacanis
· 2 years ago
What does that mean?
andrewbaron
· 2 years ago
It means I dont think you are describing what is actually there. You think Mahalo is one thing but it seems to be something else.
Still waiting on the good review. Can you point to a good review of Mahalo somewhere? Id like to read from someone else beside you or other people from Mahalo whats so good about it. Ive never heard anyone say anything good about Mahalo except for you.
"A hand-built Mahalo search-results page has one conspicuous advantage over Google’s: grouping into subthemes, which make a page of links much easier to scan and to find items of particular interest. For example, Mahalo’s page about Paris Hilton, the site’s top search subject last week, arranges the recommended links into clusters including news, photos, gossip, satire and humor. The use of subject categories also eliminates the need to provide, as Google does, two-line text excerpts from the listed sites to provide clues about the site’s contents.
All of the links listed in Mahalo send the user to Web pages that contain genuine content, not sales pitches in disguise. By using its own editors as the final arbiters of what goes in, Mahalo cuts off access in its listings to Web sites that confuse a search engine’s algorithm with advertorials that commingle advertisements with noncommercial information. To those in the trade, outsmarting the algorithm is called “search engine optimization.” For the rest of us, it produces Web pages littered with spam.
Last week, Mr. Calacanis tried to illustrate how spam has infested some top results on Google. After running searches for “low-carb diets,” “Lasik” and “lingerie” at Google and at Mahalo, he compared the results. The exercise succeeded in exposing a few examples of Web sites ranked highly in Google’s results that contained advertorials or content apparently scraped from higher-quality sites."
3. Mahalo, Creating Ripples In The Web Market http://www.hottnez.com/mahalo-creating-ripples-... "The advantage of Mahalo is that, you will always be connected to quality links, which are specific, spam free and not deceptive."
5. Mahalo - A Powerful Tool in the Right Hands http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2007/09/12/mahalo... "What Mahalo does is take the cream of the crop info on a topic and aggregate it on one page…a search aggregator. To geeks, this is not a revelation. But to ordinary everyday users like my mother and my friends who are not constantly tethered to the Internet, it saves them time and aggravation."
6. Check out Mahalo http://www.slobokan.com/archives/2007/05/30/che... "I gave it a test run just a few moments ago and I must admit the results were quite pleasing. I didn’t have to wade through four pages of irrelevant results to find what I was looking for, and the way they break the results down into groups for news, blogs, videos and media is outstanding."
8. MahaloTube http://point-oh.com/?p=52 "For example, since I’m a glutton for punishment, I searched for Joe Torre, the ex-Yankees manager, and it turns out that an editor named Ray Manukay has already populated the results with video, news, vital stats, a timeline and even links to Joe Torre merchandise. Compare this with what you get when you search for Joe Torre on Google or Wikipedia and you can start to see how Mahalo, if widely adopted, could become a serious time saver."
9. Mahalo for my sister http://blog.bibrik.com/archives/2007/08/mahalo_... "Mahalo is brilliant, or so says my sister. That’s what she thought when she took a look at it after looking at Twitters about it. When I asked why she thought that, here’s what she said."
I've got dozens more of these... but I don't have the time to do all your research for you.
You can hate me, but the product is really good already. It's important, and there is a good chance that we can make it work. It's going to take five years, but if it does work it will be one of the top 10 sites on the internet.
best j
andrewbaron
· 2 years ago
Ok, well the Scoble and NYTimes links are impressive but neither review Mahalo, they just mention what it is. The other links were not so impressive. Ill post more on my findings in the next few days.
jsmooth995
· 2 years ago
c'mon man, just admit he got you on this one. :)
Tim S
· 2 years ago
pwnd!
Lan Bui
· 2 years ago
This isthe exact thing I was talking to some people about. I agree, and what makes it even worse is that he knows what it takes to get those kind of views.
I left a comment for him to contact me and I have ideas for him. He still has not contacted me; I guess he didn't really want anyone to answer.
andrewbaron
· 2 years ago
It doesnt suprise me at all that he hasnt responded, its likely he is not actually looking for any help: I know he said in his initial request that he would pay for help, but later that day he said he wasnt willing to pay.
Daniel Ha
· 2 years ago
I've used Mahalo once to view a page about Jason Calacanis. It was very informative!
Duncan
· 2 years ago
Actually Andrew I've publicly defended Mahalo a couple of times on TechCrunch, most recently <http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/26/google-wil...> so to say that Mahalo hasn't had positive press is incorrect and probably just plain uncharitable.
I'll also happily write in defense of it again: it's not search for geeks but find a non-computer person and see how they respond: this is Jason's target market, so I wouldn't expect you to get it in the least, but if you were able to consider someone other than yourself and your own perspective you might get it. Dare I say Jason in the Martha Stewart of search: warm and fuzzy but not for a serious cook :-)
BlendahTom
· 2 years ago
Duncan,
I think that you are mis-categorizing "positive press" and actual real world reviews.. I am a big fan of Jason but I did write a critical post on Mahalo back in June for what I feel is a concept that can't scale in terms of quality results as shown in the post. http://blog.blendah.com/2007/06/mahalo-should-b...
Maybe if there was a way to use a Pligg feature to give the results pages real world feedback instead of the current setup.. people would be willing to cut it some slack and work on making it better.
my .02
andrewbaron
· 2 years ago
I hear what you are saying and Im game to put myself in others' shoes. My point is that the site is working well when someone clicks on an ad and that, in my 'paternalistic' opinion, this is when it breaks down for the poor user who doesn't know better.
Your link says "I think he is doing a good job" but I didn't see where you gave a positive review of his site. I noticed in the comments that you defended your post by suggesting you were not meaning to state your opinion about Mahalo.
Coincidentally, after my thread here seemed to of dried up, just as your comment came in Duncan, 3 more comments came in at exactly the same time supporting Jason so Im wondering also if your comment was instigated by a nudge for a voucher?
As for the Martha of search, as we have all noticed, there sure is a lot of noise and crap that makes it way on to the table. Just because someone learns how to game Google doesn't make it taste good. ;)
Anon
· 2 years ago
Your analogy is dead wrong. Jason Calacanis is the Willy Wonka of search.
LaurelPapworth
· 2 years ago
Actually there's heaps of positive reviews - but they are from waaay back in May. Search Valleywag and Techcrunch. If I didn't know better, I would say that for some reason they 'bought' the press release. Not now tho... hindsight (courtesy of the long tail of information) is a beautiful thing. :)
i wish I could find the review that said, to put it plainly, that only idiots would waste time clicking away on Mahalo. THAT is a positive review - Tagline? "Mahalo keeps morons busy and out of the way. "
Karoli
· 2 years ago
Mine was written on September 12th. I am not a moron, nor is my mother. It's just that 90% of Internet users are not geeks and do not want to spend hours picking through articles and blog posts for information.
Oh, I did find Google Ads, finally, on Mahalo. I had to look for them, though -- they're at the bottom, clearly disclosed.
Jason White, CSCS
· 2 years ago
Must be a noob, but I thought the fundamental purpose of a people driven search results page esp for niche was to select only the most relevant results, tag the ones with advertising, and separate them from sites with a lower commercial interest..
Isn't that the idea behind Mahalo? "Here ya go, these sites have the info you want with commercials, and theses sites are commercial free."
Right?
Dr.Mani
· 2 years ago
The 'model' is VERY similar to what started as "The Mining Company" in 1997 (where I was a 'founder Guide') and evolved into today's About.com - the jingle then was "We mine the Web, so you don't have to"
And way before Google Adsense, they used the ad supported model - a PPC service called 'Sprinks' - and if I'm not mistaken, PPC guru Perry Marshall was spearheading the ad marketing efforts then.
Quickly - VERY quickly - About.com became a top 10 Web property. It was powered by over 500 Guides, each of which was paid a modest fee for what turned into pretty hard work after the early phase... but the ingredient powering the 'search' was passionate humans.
Similar to Mahalo? I think so.
All success Dr.Mani
Victor Agreda Jr
· 2 years ago
And About.com has become a powerhouse. I use it frequently. I think Mahalo fits a slightly different space-- and let's face it, competition is good. There's plenty of Coke and Pepsi drinkers out there.
The folks who pan Mahalo tend to know how to use DOS. The people who use Mahalo (I'm guessing) are what we call "normal human beings."
Greg Gershman
· 2 years ago
I agree with you assessment of Mahalo; I've yet to find it useful in any way that has encouraged me to return there. But I don't see how your distinction from Google holds. You said, "Everytime a user clicks on an ad, they are being taken to information that is promotionally paid for as opposed to being there because it is the most valuable." I can't see how that's different than Google. If your distinction is in the motivations of the creators, I see the distinction, but would argue that Google's more interested in making money at this point than they are in providing accurate search results.
Sebastian
· 2 years ago
Nobody expects YOU to understand what Mahalo is. Mahalo isn't a product for the Silicon Valley-types. It's a product for probably 10 to 20 percent of the market - the 20 percent that does NOT know how to use Google. The 20 percent that isn't looking for a certain reference of a development error message or something else technical. This 20 percent is looking for simple things - simple things that Mahalo provides.
I think Jason explained that already several times. And it doesn't matter even a little bit WHY he created Mahalo - being it for revenues or for making the world a better place. (When I checked the last time, most start-ups were pro-profit, not philanthropic corporations.) Even Google "abuses" people to accidentally click on ads - through making the TEXT of ads clickable, that normally isn't.
If Mahalo will be successful - and it seems as if it is more successful than expected initially - it is a sign that there is a market for this product. Even if close-minded people like you don't understand that.
William Tildesley
· 2 years ago
The reason people "hate" Jason is because he speaks his mind on things that may be considered "sensertive". Personally I think it's refreshing from all the arse licking we see.
Go Jason and good luck with Mahalo.
William Tildesley
· 2 years ago
sorry it seems that I can't spell today. Oh well if only I could edit the post.
scottwitter
· 2 years ago
i was one of the 20 people that took the time to watch you speak at VON 2007, at first i was impressed, i even there, at the room while you spoke added the Mahalo brower tab.
there is a big disconnect between Veronica and Mahalo. Veronica offers generic information that i could search for anywhere if i needed. I thought that Veronica would be guiding viewers through Mahalo, offering the best of Mahalo, showing users exciting coincedences and facts and people, that otherwise wouldn't have popped to the surface without the Mahalo system of passionate users tagging and rating. a Geek fest competing with stumbleupon, with an attractive host.
Instead it is run of the mill.
Make it like the amazing race, let me produce it.
scottwitter.
Derek
· 2 years ago
Thought I'd add a little bit about what I think of this conversation...
When I heard about the Greenhouse, I signed right up. I whipped through about 5 serps, constructed them using Google, and quit. I didn't get paid, didn't feel it was worth the hassle to get paid, etc..
Mahalo, bar none, offers the best search results; it has it's problems, though. Mainly in misspellings.
Anyway. I won't be using Mahalo, except MAYBE for a travel search here and there. I'll always (barring a natural disaster at all of its datacenters) use google. The example Calacanis throws around for "Paris hotels" is where Mahalo shines.
About the ads, though. How can you not figure out which is which? They're prefaced with "Ads by Google," the links are underlined, (not so in the Mahalo results, and they're not even on every page! Compare the ads for Verizon in both Mahalo and Ask.com ..
Bad example, I'm not seeing ads for Verizon.
With that said, though, I do think Calacanis markets a little ... fervently..
But I think that's because he is about Mahalo.
Derek
· 2 years ago
I should've finished my point with Ask's results... For me, someone who hasn't clicked on an AD for probably 5 years, (except for ads from The Deck, which are actually focused for the viewers), Ask's ads are pretty deceptive. Nothing compared to Mahalo's....
Ed Kohler
· 2 years ago
I've found Mahalo valuable from a Wikihow, or HowStuffWorks perspective, but not as a search engine. If you define it as a search product, it's easy to rip apart, but it's turning out to be something different than a Google alternative.
Jason
· 2 years ago
Give it time Ed... we're still in beta an only have 22,000 pages that represent ~200k searches. We're adding 1,000 pages a week so it should get better an better over time.
Eric Eggertson
· 2 years ago
Wow. I could barely plod my way through that bloated lead paragraph. Sometimes less is more.
Rich
· 2 years ago
Andrew, I've got to agree with you 100%. The original product idea of Mahalo was a decent one, however to say they are better than Google in anyway is ironic since 99.9% of their guides are using google to scrape links. 90% of each page is made up entirely of links for various search results. Be it Google, Yahoo!, MSN Live search, or a combination of their tools.
The pure facts is as Jason said they have roughly 22,000, 90% of them are outdated within a day or two of being added. The majority have been outdated for months with no updating in sight! The vast majority of these pages contain errors, dead links or worse.
From what I see Mahalo built their search page foundation and now have their google ranking and have since moved to "buzz terms". Chasing google trends with stubs that provide nothing more than a few "optimized" links.
Jim
· 2 years ago
You say you haven't seen any positive review and when provided with a couple you quickly say they weren't impressive. Are you saying you have a better sense of what's "better" than those who reviewed the site?
Can't you be man enough to admit that some of your assertions were wrong?
andrewbaron
· 2 years ago
I knew there must be some :)
Not that we need the A-listers to chime in (and we heard that Duncan thinks Jason is doing a good job), but why the lack of positive A-list reviews I wonder.
Dan
· 2 years ago
Sounds like LinkBait to me! Also - why the need to segment the community into "A-Listers" and "everyone else."
All Comments
1) I never linked to Mahalo (check the link, it goes to calacanis.com)
2) I linked back to your blog and more particularly this post.
3) If you are questioning my objectivity might I suggest you follow the link to my review of Mahalo. I don't have a personal vendetta against it but I am in no way a strident supporter.
With that being said, I am not by any stretch of the imagination a journalist. I am just commenting on the defensiveness and politics that I am witnessing in the blogosphere. Thanks for the time.
I cant help but notice that I usually get about 0 comments, or sometimes a few, but this thread gets so many comments in bursts all at once, way after the post is past due.
If anyone wants to take notice, there are many comments left by Dr. Mani which is the same person that left several comments under the name William Tildesley.
Listen to how "convinced" and "passionate" about Mahalo these commenters are too. Its as if they work for Mahalo or "something".
Give Mahalo a chance, eh? It's really only just launched and is already pretty sweet.
(Great stuff on TWiT btw, Jason.)
I particularly like the Internet Zeitgist section because it allows me to find cool things I might not come across yet. That's how I discovered Chocolate Rain.
I also really like it for current events because they have gone through and found links that cover the different angles on the story. Plus for breaking news I know that I can just go to the Mahalo page and all the newest info will be there because someone at Mahalo is following it for me.
For the record I don't work for Mahalo, in fact I work for an SEO company.
The main point you make is that Mahalo can not be trusted because it makes money from advertising. You seem to suggest that they get paid every time you click a link, which I just don't see on Mahalo. The links I've clicked when using Mahalo have been internal, or those that appear to be unpaid links, not adverts. I'm sure they make money from some obvious adverts, like other sites.
So, the reason I think your argument isn't valid is that every prominent search engine makes money from clicks. We can't complain that people make money, we all need it to continue running the business.
So, your rational would suggest all prominent search engines are reckless.
I went back to Mahalo after your post here and had difficulty finding tose misleading links.
On the other hand, I'm fairly ticked at Google for the crap search results I've gotten since they shook up their algorithm again -- I'm back to picking through their search results to get past the content scrapers.
Is Mahalo a Google replacement? no. But it's not meant to be. Is it useful? Yes.
Now I'm going back to find those advertisement links.
"We take the time to find and organize the best links for search terms, so you don't have to. With traditional search engines you need to figure out the right search term and find relevant results within an unorganized list that often contains irrelevant results, spam, and some mediocre sites."
WTF? Are we so stupid with Google? Jason, your going down with that Jive ass Adam Curry and Podshow.
John Coffey
Anyway, I'll try to respond.
>> the mission of Mahalo was not born out of an idea
>> to help improve the lives of others
Actually, that is the EXACT mission of Mahalo. Our tag line is "we're here to help."
The concept was born out of the realization that search results were getting very cluttered with bad sites, average sites, and even dangerous sites. Also, the number of good, great, and amazing sites has been increasing.
The result? There is simply too much information to sort through. If you do a search for Paris Hotels on Mahalo, Google, Yahoo, and Ask you'll see clearly that our result is the cleanest, spam free, and most helpful result hands down.
Why? Well, we paid a human with a passion for travel and the kindness to help people to spend five to ten hours making that result better. When Google, Yahoo, and Ask stop working that's when we start.
In fact, many of the folks working on Mahalo come from the Wikipedia community!
>> Everytime a user clicks on an ad, they are being
>> taken to information that is promotionally paid for
>> as opposed to being there because it is the most valuable.
You understand that the links we select are not paying right? We use the exact same business model as Google--in fact we use their advertising network! All the ads are clearly labeled as such. The ads are targeted and they take up < 3% of the page design (probably the lowest in the search industry!).
>> Mahalo is fundamentally flawed because it’s
>> purpose is to provide useful, valuable information
>> about a specific subject matter, but ultimately so
>> that users who are looking for that information
>> will be lead astray by clicking on less relevant
>> advertising.
That's factually incorrect. The goal is to provide valuable information, yes. However, the goal is not to lead users astray with the advertisements. Far from it. The goal is to, like Google, put highly relevant advertisements on the page that the users might actually want/find useful.
That being said, high-quality free services have been ad-supported for a long time. Isn't that how Rocketboom works as well? You guys have advertisers and they pay for the audience that you've created with your product?
best jason
Still waiting on the good review. Can you point to a good review of Mahalo somewhere? Id like to read from someone else beside you or other people from Mahalo whats so good about it. Ive never heard anyone say anything good about Mahalo except for you.
Why Mahalo, TechMeme, and Facebook are going to kick Google’s butt in four years
http://scobleizer.com/2007/08/26/why-mahalo-tec...
2. New York Times: The Human Touch That May Loosen Google’s Grip
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/business/your...
"A hand-built Mahalo search-results page has one conspicuous advantage over Google’s: grouping into subthemes, which make a page of links much easier to scan and to find items of particular interest. For example, Mahalo’s page about Paris Hilton, the site’s top search subject last week, arranges the recommended links into clusters including news, photos, gossip, satire and humor. The use of subject categories also eliminates the need to provide, as Google does, two-line text excerpts from the listed sites to provide clues about the site’s contents.
All of the links listed in Mahalo send the user to Web pages that contain genuine content, not sales pitches in disguise. By using its own editors as the final arbiters of what goes in, Mahalo cuts off access in its listings to Web sites that confuse a search engine’s algorithm with advertorials that commingle advertisements with noncommercial information. To those in the trade, outsmarting the algorithm is called “search engine optimization.” For the rest of us, it produces Web pages littered with spam.
Last week, Mr. Calacanis tried to illustrate how spam has infested some top results on Google. After running searches for “low-carb diets,” “Lasik” and “lingerie” at Google and at Mahalo, he compared the results. The exercise succeeded in exposing a few examples of Web sites ranked highly in Google’s results that contained advertorials or content apparently scraped from higher-quality sites."
3. Mahalo, Creating Ripples In The Web Market
http://www.hottnez.com/mahalo-creating-ripples-...
"The advantage of Mahalo is that, you will always be connected to quality links, which are specific, spam free and not deceptive."
4. I like Mahalo
http://adrianpegg.co.uk/2007/09/16/i-like-mahalo/
5. Mahalo - A Powerful Tool in the Right Hands
http://www.drumsnwhistles.com/2007/09/12/mahalo...
"What Mahalo does is take the cream of the crop info on a topic and aggregate it on one page…a search aggregator. To geeks, this is not a revelation. But to ordinary everyday users like my mother and my friends who are not constantly tethered to the
Internet, it saves them time and aggravation."
6. Check out Mahalo
http://www.slobokan.com/archives/2007/05/30/che...
"I gave it a test run just a few moments ago and I must admit the results were quite pleasing. I didn’t have to wade through four pages of irrelevant results to find what I was looking for, and the way they break the results down into groups for news, blogs, videos and media is outstanding."
7. Fast Company: Man vs. Machine
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/man-vs-...
"And that's the thing about Calacanis. Only a sucker would bet against him."
8. MahaloTube
http://point-oh.com/?p=52
"For example, since I’m a glutton for punishment, I searched for Joe Torre, the ex-Yankees manager, and it turns out that an editor named Ray Manukay has already populated the results with video, news, vital stats, a timeline and even links to Joe Torre merchandise. Compare this with what you get when you search for Joe Torre on Google or Wikipedia and you can start to see how Mahalo, if widely adopted, could become a serious time saver."
9. Mahalo for my sister
http://blog.bibrik.com/archives/2007/08/mahalo_...
"Mahalo is brilliant, or so says my sister. That’s what she thought when she took a look at it after looking at Twitters about it. When I asked why she thought that, here’s what she said."
I've got dozens more of these... but I don't have the time to do all your research for you.
You can hate me, but the product is really good already. It's important, and there is a good chance that we can make it work. It's going to take five years, but if it does work it will be one of the top 10 sites on the internet.
best j
I left a comment for him to contact me and I have ideas for him. He still has not contacted me; I guess he didn't really want anyone to answer.
I'll also happily write in defense of it again: it's not search for geeks but find a non-computer person and see how they respond: this is Jason's target market, so I wouldn't expect you to get it in the least, but if you were able to consider someone other than yourself and your own perspective you might get it. Dare I say Jason in the Martha Stewart of search: warm and fuzzy but not for a serious cook :-)
I think that you are mis-categorizing "positive press" and actual real world reviews.. I am a big fan of Jason but I did write a critical post on Mahalo back in June for what I feel is a concept that can't scale in terms of quality results as shown in the post. http://blog.blendah.com/2007/06/mahalo-should-b...
Maybe if there was a way to use a Pligg feature to give the results pages real world feedback instead of the current setup.. people would be willing to cut it some slack and work on making it better.
my .02
Your link says "I think he is doing a good job" but I didn't see where you gave a positive review of his site. I noticed in the comments that you defended your post by suggesting you were not meaning to state your opinion about Mahalo.
Coincidentally, after my thread here seemed to of dried up, just as your comment came in Duncan, 3 more comments came in at exactly the same time supporting Jason so Im wondering also if your comment was instigated by a nudge for a voucher?
As for the Martha of search, as we have all noticed, there sure is a lot of noise and crap that makes it way on to the table. Just because someone learns how to game Google doesn't make it taste good. ;)
i wish I could find the review that said, to put it plainly, that only idiots would waste time clicking away on Mahalo. THAT is a positive review - Tagline? "Mahalo keeps morons busy and out of the way. "
Oh, I did find Google Ads, finally, on Mahalo. I had to look for them, though -- they're at the bottom, clearly disclosed.
Isn't that the idea behind Mahalo? "Here ya go, these sites have the info you want with commercials, and theses sites are commercial free."
Right?
And way before Google Adsense, they used the ad supported model - a PPC service called 'Sprinks' - and if I'm not mistaken, PPC guru Perry Marshall was spearheading the ad marketing efforts then.
Quickly - VERY quickly - About.com became a top 10 Web property. It was powered by over 500 Guides, each of which was paid a modest fee for what turned into pretty hard work after the early phase... but the ingredient powering the 'search' was passionate humans.
Similar to Mahalo? I think so.
All success
Dr.Mani
The folks who pan Mahalo tend to know how to use DOS. The people who use Mahalo (I'm guessing) are what we call "normal human beings."
I think Jason explained that already several times. And it doesn't matter even a little bit WHY he created Mahalo - being it for revenues or for making the world a better place. (When I checked the last time, most start-ups were pro-profit, not philanthropic corporations.)
Even Google "abuses" people to accidentally click on ads - through making the TEXT of ads clickable, that normally isn't.
If Mahalo will be successful - and it seems as if it is more successful than expected initially - it is a sign that there is a market for this product. Even if close-minded people like you don't understand that.
Go Jason and good luck with Mahalo.
there is a big disconnect between Veronica and Mahalo. Veronica offers generic information that i could search for anywhere if i needed. I thought that Veronica would be guiding viewers through Mahalo, offering the best of Mahalo, showing users exciting coincedences and facts and people, that otherwise wouldn't have popped to the surface without the Mahalo system of passionate users tagging and rating. a Geek fest competing with stumbleupon, with an attractive host.
Instead it is run of the mill.
Make it like the amazing race, let me produce it.
scottwitter.
When I heard about the Greenhouse, I signed right up. I whipped through about 5 serps, constructed them using Google, and quit. I didn't get paid, didn't feel it was worth the hassle to get paid, etc..
Mahalo, bar none, offers the best search results; it has it's problems, though. Mainly in misspellings.
Anyway. I won't be using Mahalo, except MAYBE for a travel search here and there. I'll always (barring a natural disaster at all of its datacenters) use google. The example Calacanis throws around for "Paris hotels" is where Mahalo shines.
About the ads, though. How can you not figure out which is which? They're prefaced with "Ads by Google," the links are underlined, (not so in the Mahalo results, and they're not even on every page! Compare the ads for Verizon in both Mahalo and Ask.com ..
Bad example, I'm not seeing ads for Verizon.
With that said, though, I do think Calacanis markets a little ... fervently..
But I think that's because he is about Mahalo.
The pure facts is as Jason said they have roughly 22,000, 90% of them are outdated within a day or two of being added. The majority have been outdated for months with no updating in sight! The vast majority of these pages contain errors, dead links or worse.
From what I see Mahalo built their search page foundation and now have their google ranking and have since moved to "buzz terms". Chasing google trends with stubs that provide nothing more than a few "optimized" links.
Can't you be man enough to admit that some of your assertions were wrong?
Not that we need the A-listers to chime in (and we heard that Duncan thinks Jason is doing a good job), but why the lack of positive A-list reviews I wonder.