Site of the Day: Mahalo
July 10, 2008
Jason Calacanis is really growing Mahalo into something special.
Mahalo is a human edited search engine (he calls it web “curation”) that seeks to eliminate spam from results by 100% through the use of real people writing search results instead of a “gamable” algorithm.
Dmoz failed at the human edited directory eventually. Calacanis seems to have found the formula for making it work this time.
He has a paid staff to review link submissions and has figured out the best way to put a TON of people to work for the company through his Greenhouse program.
If you sign up for the Greenhouse program you are paid to submit search results, or what they call “writing search results pages.” A staff member will review what is submitted and, if accepted, you get paid or you can have the funds sent to their chosen charity, the “Wikimedia Foundation.”
Under this model, Mahalo has what Dmoz did not: an army of willing search editors to fill the site with search results fast.
Volunteerism was a cute attempt for Dmoz when the web was much smaller, but it worked out miserably under their editor model and as the web grew. Volunteers, especially when there aren’t that many, couldn’t or wouldn’t keep up with the web. I was never accepted in my categories at Dmoz. I fit the bill with great content, but no one was on the other end editing my submissions. Many categories at Dmoz ended up this way because they didn’t get the input they needed from tens of thousands of people.
Instead they limited and restricted their editor program so much that it was impossible for the directory to become relevant to users. Too much missing, worthy information and links in every niche.
The Result is Better Results
Mahalo is producing some very good results in many niches and they are fast building a large community of contributors. They have a great, fighting chance of actually keeping up with the growth of good content on the web with this model.
I recommend readers grab an account at Mahalo and play around with it. It really is neat what they’re doing inside. There are a lot of social networking features where you can build a fan base around the links you submit and keep up with other users who are submitting results you’d be interested in.
I don’t think Google can be killed, but if it could, Mahalo would have the best chance of driving the stake through Google’s heart just because people are so sick of search spam.
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Jason Calacanis Keynote Affiliate Summit
July 10, 2008
I just watched a super long video. That very rarely happens. But this one I got pulled into and couldn’t click away.
It is Jason Calacanis’ Keynote speech from Affiliate Summit. He’s talking about gaming search engines, SEO is bullshit, and how “curation” is the salvation of the internet. (His search engine, Mahalo, uses real people to rank sites rather than algorithms.)
Learn how Pay Per Post is the devil. Why Jason actually wants you to spam social networks and the engines. Learn how holding up a 6 figure check is pathetic and desperate. (Loved that one!)
The video is long so if you want the bits that I thought were best…
Jason starts at 7:32 (Recommend you go from here all the way through. The entertainment value is awesome. Strong language warning. 
)
Minutes 29-45 are great if you MUST skip ahead.
