Jason Calacanis, who launched human-edited search engine Mahalo late last month, has initiated a LinkedIn discussion asking users what they'd do if they were the CEO of Mahalo.
There's some interesting feedback, especially since Mahalo has captured the audience's attention at least at the present, but it's still in "alpha." Will the users stick around as more articles get added?
Until you have more human results on there - its just a rebranded Google.500 pages a week isnt a lot - so i would probably see how this can be improved by a factor of ten, otherwise by the time you have nice results you will have lost all publicity. First impressions and all that...
The nature of human-edited search engines also come into play:
One thing that a human-powered engine can do that a computer cannot is identify "sides" of an issue. If someone enters a search for President Bush, a human can identify pros and cons. Likewise, if someone enters a search for a movie or restaurant review, a human can decide if it's for or against.
But then again, I think about how Mahalo will become a lot like Wikipedia if this is the case. That's what the others thought, too:
How are you different than About.com or Wikipedia? I'm not sure I see where the generation of yet more content is leading. Granted, there is an ocean of junk out there, and good content is always welcome. How do you differentiate yourselves? That is what I would focus on.
[Hat tip: Todd Mintz]
Discussion continues at LinkedIn.
