Aloha Mahalo
Jason, C.K., and a group of A-list investors have launched the alpha of Mahalo, their “human-powered search engine.” It’s a sleek, Web 2.0 take on Yahoo 1.0. That is, it’s a modern reinterpretation of the classic Web directory. Jason says his goal is to get the top 10,000 search terms into the index by the end of the year, and I’m sure he’ll get it done. Beyond that, I think he may have a real challenge. Other sites using the “human-powered” model have found it difficult to scale; exceptions like Wikipedia and Craigslist have made it on altruism and crowdsourcing, concepts that may be difficult to apply to a commercial endeavor like Mahalo. Still, Jason has a knack for proving the naysayers wrong, and there’s definitely something appealing about the idea of using a team of live “guides” instead of a box of algorithms to get the job done. So, aloha, Mahalo! Look forward to seeing you go to 10,000 and beyond!
