Have you noticed the search results in Google degrading? I find more and more garbage web sites in the results. Sure the top results are usually pretty decent, but some are way off the mark. The problem is, no matter how often the smart people at Google tweak their PR algorhythm, there is an entire army of SEO experts looking to game the system as they try to get on the first page of results. And many of the web sites playing the SEO game are unfortunately pretty lame.
Enter Mahalo. The Hawaiian word for “thank you,” Mahalo bills itself as a human-powered search engine. The value proposition? The search results have all been screened by human editors, ensuring you get just the really good web sites.
In their own words:
Mahalo is the world’s first human-powered search engine powered by an enthusiastic and energetic group of Guides. Our Guides spend their days searching, filtering out spam, and hand-crafting the best search results possible. If they haven’t yet built a search result, you can request that search result. You can also suggest links for any of our search results.
Mahalo has only just launched their alpha today. According to CEO Jason Calacanis, they served 100,000 pages in the first hour of operation.
The idea is appealing, for sure. I took it for a quick spin, of course, testing to see if any of my web sites turned up. First I tried searching for instant messaging, only to be told ‘Oops! We haven’t hand-written a result page for “instant messaging” yet.’ Instead, I’m presented with the option to be notified when they do create their own results page, and a list of (what else?) Google’s search results. Back to square one.
Okay, next I tried “windows live messenger” with the same lack of of hand-crafted results. Hmmm…
They claim they are starting by going after the top terms. Obviously(?) I’m not hitting the top terms yet.
I try searching for the popular VoIP app Skype, and finally hit paydirt!
The results were decent. Without heavy analysis, they seemed to be a streamlined version of what you’d find on the first page of Google’s own search results for skype, plus a few recent Skype news stories (courtesy of Google News).
Each of their hand-written pages also includes a message board, allowing you to discuss what is or isn’t on the page. And you can see who at Mahalo wrote the page. The Skype page, for instance, was written by Dave from Los Angeles. He’s written a bunch of other Mahalo results pages, too. Sadly, Dave hasn’t included a link to BigBlueBall. Fortunately, I can recommend a link, too.
I checked the Skype results message board, but was promptly told that I had to login to participate on the message board. Ok, that means creating an account. So now, I’m User ID 342, a.k.a. Jeff.
What do you think of Mahalo, both in concept and execution? Could Mahalo, or something like it, supplant Google someday? And “Mahalo” for your comments!
UPDATE: BigBlueBall is on Mahalo! The BigBlueBall AIM Center made The Mahalo Top 7 for AOL Instant Messenger.
Hmm. Well… my thoughts are… no way. I’m sorry, but hand-writing search results is not going to upset (or even cause worry for) the giants. There are just too many possibilities, too many variations and combinations and such, for hand-selected searches to work for the majority of the population.
What if I have an obscure question? What if I’m not sure how to word my question? Mahalo isn’t going to be able to help me.
Meh… it’s an interesting concept, but for something as complex and broad-scoped as a search engine, it’s just not practical.
Hmm. Well… my thoughts are… no way. I’m sorry, but hand-writing search results is not going to upset (or even cause worry for) the giants. There are just too many possibilities, too many variations and combinations and such, for hand-selected searches to work for the majority of the population.
What if I have an obscure question? What if I’m not sure how to word my question? Mahalo isn’t going to be able to help me.
Meh… it’s an interesting concept, but for something as complex and broad-scoped as a search engine, it’s just not practical.
Interesting. It’s a great idea — however no matter the garbage on Google, it will always remain number one.
I can’t believe the guys review EVERY webpage?! That’s crazy! I wonder when the point of breakdown will occur when spam bots start sending thousands of requests.
Interesting. It’s a great idea — however no matter the garbage on Google, it will always remain number one.
I can’t believe the guys review EVERY webpage?! That’s crazy! I wonder when the point of breakdown will occur when spam bots start sending thousands of requests.
Tigerblade, I agree Mahalo won’t displace Google for general-purpose or obscure searches, but would you consider using it for a quick lookup for something not so obscure (i.e. my Skype example)?
I’ll add a couple fairly obvious points. Although Mahalo is billed as providing hand-written search results, it’s really not much different from Wikipedia (sans the narrative content). Maybe the real question would whether you’d prefer to start at Wikipedia or Mahalo? The second point is that, just as Wikipedia results usually rank right near the top of most popular Google searches, I suspect Mahalo will soon do the same.
So Google may be your starting point, and then based on the kind of information your looking for (and the quality of the results Google returns) you might branch off to Wikipedia or Mahalo.
Graham, I don’t think they claim to review every web page. But they will review the ones you submit. I think if a bot starts submitting recommended links, they will quickly identify and block that bot, effectively ignoring all suggestions. At least, that’s what I would do.
Tigerblade, I agree Mahalo won’t displace Google for general-purpose or obscure searches, but would you consider using it for a quick lookup for something not so obscure (i.e. my Skype example)?
I’ll add a couple fairly obvious points. Although Mahalo is billed as providing hand-written search results, it’s really not much different from Wikipedia (sans the narrative content). Maybe the real question would whether you’d prefer to start at Wikipedia or Mahalo? The second point is that, just as Wikipedia results usually rank right near the top of most popular Google searches, I suspect Mahalo will soon do the same.
So Google may be your starting point, and then based on the kind of information your looking for (and the quality of the results Google returns) you might branch off to Wikipedia or Mahalo.
Graham, I don’t think they claim to review every web page. But they will review the ones you submit. I think if a bot starts submitting recommended links, they will quickly identify and block that bot, effectively ignoring all suggestions. At least, that’s what I would do.
Thanks for the comments, Barbara.
I still use Google as my primary search engine, and will do so for the forseeable future. I suspect that Mahalo will gain an audience primarily through Google search results (similar to how Wikipedia has — with it’s pages usually ranked highly on the top page of Google’s search results).
Once Mahalo gains enough content and a large enough following, it might be interesting to try it as a primary search engine — especially since they fail over to Google’s search results when they don’t already have a hand-written page.
Thanks for the comments, Barbara.
I still use Google as my primary search engine, and will do so for the forseeable future. I suspect that Mahalo will gain an audience primarily through Google search results (similar to how Wikipedia has — with it’s pages usually ranked highly on the top page of Google’s search results).
Once Mahalo gains enough content and a large enough following, it might be interesting to try it as a primary search engine — especially since they fail over to Google’s search results when they don’t already have a hand-written page.