[Search-l] _Techcrunch_: Jason Calacanis Launches Mahalo Today: Human Powered Search

[Allen Stern]

I posted my (what appears to be the only critical review) here:
http://www.centernetworks.com/mahalo-launches-my-critical-review

-- Allen

>
> On 5/30/07, Seth Finkelstein <sethf at sethf.com> wrote:
>   
>> [Heavy disclaimer - I got a brief email from Jason Calacanis pointing me
>> to this article, but I have no connection to him or his ventures
>> (all stock options gratefully accepted, but I'm too independent-minded
>> to make a good promoter/flack :-))]
>>
>> http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/30/jason-calacanis-launches-mahalo-today-human-powered-search/
>>
>> Jason Calacanis Launches Mahalo Today: Human Powered Search
>> Michael Arrington
>>
>> Jason Calacanis, formerly of Weblogs, Inc. and more recently an
>> Entrepreneur in Action at Sequoia Capital, will launch his newest
>> startup, Mahalo, this afternoon at 3 PM PST. The site is password
>> protected until then.
>>
>> Mahalo is a search engine, and will join Powerset as the more
>> interesting new engines to launch in 2007.
>>
>> The service has features that are similar to the new Netscape news
>> finder product that Calacanis launched last year at AOL: expert guides
>> will determine the most relevant results. The main search results are
>> provided by guides (Mahalo employees), who find relevant results for
>> search terms. User submitted results are also included.
>>
>> The primary results for search terms are included at the top, in a
>> "top seven" area. These are hand picked results from the guids that
>> should all be good results for the query (see screen shot below of
>> results for "Paris Hotels" - click for larger view). To the right of
>> the results are "Guide Notes" which include additional information
>> including relevant additional searches and "Fast Facts." In the case
>> of Paris Hotels, the "Fast Facts" include the country, language,
>> currenty and telephone country code.
>>
>> Additional hand picked results appear below the Top Seven, and Google
>> results round out the query.
>>
>> Also in the right sidebar is a place for users who've registered with
>> the site to submit links relevant to the query. The more users who've
>> submitted a unique link, the higher it appears on the list. Mahalo
>> will be looking for fraud in this area - if a guide determines a link
>> to be spammy, they will ban the link, the user and the user's IP
>> address "forever." However, if a link gets enough votes and is
>> determined to be relevant by the guides, it will move over into the
>> main search results area.
>>
>> Each search page also has a discussion/forum area, where any
>> registered user can add their thoughts to what's included on the
>> results page.
>>
>> Mahalo has 40 full time guides today and have created 4,000 results
>> pages - each of which will serve approximately 12 various queries.
>> Calacanis says that the guides are steadily improving results and
>> adding more queries - they expect to have 10,000 by end of year, and
>> 25,000 by end of 2008.
>>
>> They are really focusing on top search terms, which they obtain from a
>> number of search engines and other sources, Calacanis says. If a user
>> makes a query that has no Mahalo results, they are given Google
>> results instead. Calacanis stressed that it is going to take them a
>> couple of years to get really deep results for most queries - until
>> the end of 2007 the site will be in Alpha, and will be in beta for all
>> of 2008.  "It takes a few years to build a really compelling search
>> engine," he said.
>>
>> Mahalo has now completed two rounds of financing. The first was led by
>> Sequoia Capital. The second was led by Elon Musk and News Corp. The
>> size of the rounds have not been disclosed, but Calacanis says he has
>> enough capital to run the business for up to four years without
>> revenue.
>>
>> Disclosure: We have no financial interest in Mahalo; however, Jason
>> Calacanis is our partner on our upcoming TechCrunch20 Conference.
>>
>> --
>> Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  http://sethf.com/
>> Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
>> Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php
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