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Mahalo Will Compete with Search Giants and Vertical Search

Human-assisted search engines such as Mahalo and vertical search engines such as LookSmart have the ability to provide very direct search results that broad-based search engines, such as Google and Yahoo cannot.

This is because broad-based search engines can't tell the difference between words such as gremlin, and will return results about both movies and cars. Vertical search engines on the other hand cater to specific topics such as automobiles, and would not list anything about monsters or movies. Furthermore, human-powered search engines, such as Mahalo, allow for different pages for each specific type of gremlin giving more precise search results (keep in mind you have to imagine how the pages will exist over time at Mahalo, because they are still in Alpha many searches are still missing).

I was able to contact Jason Calacanis founder and CEO of Mahalo (via e-mail) to ask him about their approach to verticals, and he had the following to say:

We are focusing on verticals in addition to the top 10,000 terms, so I would encourage you to compare our results for travel, food, health, and cars head-to-head with any vertical search engine.

Now, we're in alpha so there are only 6,000+ pages right now, but if you compare our pages (when we have one) to any other machine search engine we will win hands down. The only issue, of course, is how many pages we have. Machines vs. Man+Machine+SocialSearch is a very simple battle: Man+Machine+SocialSearch will always beat machine, man, or social search alone.

So as you can see not only is Mahalo competing with algorithm-based search engines but they are also taking smaller, more specialized vertical search engines head-on. It is yet to be seen how Mahalo will produce revenue though. If it relies on advertising, it might make a better target for advertisers since what it lacks in traffic (at the moment at least) it can make up for in terms of improved relevancy as a result of combining the power of both algorithmic search engines as well as vertical search engines.

Reader Comments (7)

markus941, July 7, 2007

Why is everyone still calling Mahalo a "search engine"? It's a poor man's about.com, an arbitrage play - whatever you want to call it, but you can't legitimately call it a "search engine".

number 1 criteria for a search engine: not using another (competing) search engine's results for the majority of its results.

Matt Coddington, July 7, 2007

I'm sorry but saying that Mahalo will ever compete with real search engines is lame and ignorant. Mahalo will succeed in becoming popular but only because of Calacanis. Mahalo is a dumbed down Wikipedia/About/Squidoo. It's decent but nothing new, and it most likely won't scale to the degree that everyone thinks it will.

The only search engine that has a hope to compete against the big boys will COMBINE human-edited results with algorithmic ones. There are a few attempting to do this already, but why write about those? That would require investigative journalism and also doesn't have the luxury of leeching off of the popularity of Calacanis and others.

And your example of "gremlin" ... If you can't figure out whether to type "gremlin car" or "gremlin movie" then you have greater problems than finding relevant search results. You should probably be in assisted living. I know it was just an example, but come on =/

Alex, July 7, 2007

I think Mahalo will grow. I think human power in Wikia.org, Mahalo.com InfoCream.com and ChaCha.com will provide some interesting options as they scale up. I think Google knows that search data by itself will become a commodity. In 5 years you will be able to buy a plug in hard drive with the webs most recent 2 billion site links for about 60 dollars. Google's algorithm would sell on ebay for about $400,000. Buckle your seatbelts Dorothy, cause search as we know it is going bye bye.

Jason, July 7, 2007

Frankly, I think that machine-based vertical search is kind of DOA. I looked at a lot of them when I was at AOL and I couldn't see much difference between Google and vertical search engine results. They were slightly better, but only 10-20%. Now, humans+machine vs. machine?! Hands down humans win... that's obviously why I'm doing Mahalo.

Matt Coddington said: "The only search engine that has a hope to compete against the big boys will COMBINE human-edited results with algorithmic ones"

uhh... Matt, that's exactly what we are doing. Our humans do the top results and when we don't have a result we give you the best machine search there is (right now): Google.

in terms of your gremlin example that is called disambiguation in the wiki world and that's what we do on Mahalo for terms like Apple and Rome (go check right now!). That's exactly the type of thing human search is excellent for!!!

Mahalo for thinking of Mahalo, and watch the Greenhouse (it's taking off).

best,

Jason

steven, July 8, 2007

imagine what it will cost to educate the world about another spaced out domain name. Where would myspace.com be if it was called maspace.com. or myspalo.com or whohalo.com. your domain name is probably one of the most vital ingredients in a flooded search market. Years ago the domain yahoo.com made me sick for days but i adjusted. now comes maholo.com. Now im too set in my ways and refuse to adjust. Its all about location and some got it naturally and some dont. MyHalo.com would be a better choice. Everyone wants to be an angel.(good or bad) Remember: Strategic keyphrase top level Vertical Location + Word of mouth advertising = The most powerful advertising on the planet. This is something google has yet to understand or they would be all over it.
Got Location?

Andy Black, January 17, 2008

The E-consultancy/Convera "Vertical Search Survey 2008?¢‚Ǩ¬? has just been released and reveals some very interesting information.

CPM will be fastest-growing revenue stream for publishers in 2008 Online revenue set to increase while print income flattens or decreases

Content owners must ensure visibility within fragmenting digital landscape by embracing RSS, widgets and toolbars.

Publishers see vertical search as opportunity to 'reclaim the online community from Google'.

The fastest-growing revenue streams for publishers in 2008 will be internet display advertising and online sponsorship.

Some 72% of publishers are expecting an increase in income from CPM advertising next year and 67% are predicting a rise in digital sponsorship, while print revenues are more likely to flatten or decrease. Just under two thirds (64%) are expecting a rise in paid search (PPC) revenue.

The findings come from a survey which was circulated to members of the Association of Online Publishers (AOP), American Business Media (ABM), Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK) and E-consultancy's early-adopter community of internet marketers.

The research also highlights the need for specialist publishers to react quickly to major changes in the digital environment in order to maintain and increase their market share and visibility.

Publishers need to adapt to maximize their digital revenues at a time of shifting advertising budgets. Trends in digital marketing are leading towards a fragmentation of the online landscape and 'atomization' of content. Content owners have a great opportunity to increase visibility for their content through the effective use of vertical search, feeds, widgets and toolbars.

The level of uptake for feeds and customized homepages is very high among this early-adopter audience surveyed but this kind of online behavior will soon become more widespread among knowledge workers across a wider range of industries."

Some 93% of more than 500 media and internet professionals said that they would be 'very likely' or 'quite likely' to use a search engine that focused on serving their specific business or work needs.

More than 70% of publishers perceived 'reclaiming the online community from Google' to be either a major benefit or a minor benefit from vertical search.

To download a free online copy of the full report, click here http://www.convera.com/survey/

Andy Black, January 17, 2008

The E-consultancy/Convera "Vertical Search Survey 2008?¢‚Ǩ¬? has just been released and reveals some very interesting information.

CPM will be fastest-growing revenue stream for publishers in 2008 Online revenue set to increase while print income flattens or decreases

Content owners must ensure visibility within fragmenting digital landscape by embracing RSS, widgets and toolbars.

Publishers see vertical search as opportunity to 'reclaim the online community from Google'.

The fastest-growing revenue streams for publishers in 2008 will be internet display advertising and online sponsorship.

Some 72% of publishers are expecting an increase in income from CPM advertising next year and 67% are predicting a rise in digital sponsorship, while print revenues are more likely to flatten or decrease. Just under two thirds (64%) are expecting a rise in paid search (PPC) revenue.

The findings come from a survey which was circulated to members of the Association of Online Publishers (AOP), American Business Media (ABM), Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK) and E-consultancy's early-adopter community of internet marketers.

The research also highlights the need for specialist publishers to react quickly to major changes in the digital environment in order to maintain and increase their market share and visibility.

Publishers need to adapt to maximize their digital revenues at a time of shifting advertising budgets. Trends in digital marketing are leading towards a fragmentation of the online landscape and 'atomization' of content. Content owners have a great opportunity to increase visibility for their content through the effective use of vertical search, feeds, widgets and toolbars.

The level of uptake for feeds and customized homepages is very high among this early-adopter audience surveyed but this kind of online behavior will soon become more widespread among knowledge workers across a wider range of industries."

Some 93% of more than 500 media and internet professionals said that they would be 'very likely' or 'quite likely' to use a search engine that focused on serving their specific business or work needs.

More than 70% of publishers perceived 'reclaiming the online community from Google' to be either a major benefit or a minor benefit from vertical search.

To download a free online copy of the full report, click here http://www.convera.com/survey/