What would you do next if you were the CEO of Mahalo.com?
Wondering if you guys were me, what would you do next with Mahalo.
Background:
1. We've got a great team: tech, admin, research, and editorial.
2. We've got an amazing server setup and can handle massive traffic.
3. We've got 4,000 pages done and can do 500 per week.
4. The public is suggesting links already (do a search apple, iphone, a car or a tv show and you'll fine some suggested links).
5. Folks are not chatting on message board yet.
6. We have a very stable and robust technology platform (MediaWiki).
So, given what we've got... what would you do next?!?!? (Mahalo staffers please don't get involved in this discussion--interested in outside voices right now... we can talk about it at staff lunch!)
Mahalo for thinking about Mahalo!
Jason
Answers (87)
Do *all* the top keywords (e.g. "sex")
Clarification added June 7, 2007:
Also, consider renaming it something easier to pronounce.
Off the top of my head:
RSS integration
Newest Pages link
Random Pages link
Research into Natural Language Processing/Wordnet/Expert Systems and how the human intelligence you're using and
expressing could be generalized, stored, reused, sold, shared.
George L
Engineering Manager at GoldenWare Travel Tech and Owner, NetMasters LLC (podjacker@gmail.com)
I would make sure that EVERY TIME some typed Mahaol.com - the webserver returned a message. And then I would define a profile of the target user audience. I would quantify where my target user audience gets value from the site.... and then work to encourage as many influencers of that target audience to discuss how it will positively impact the quality of their lives.
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...
Bill S
Advanced online system design where people and technology intersect & interact.
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Millions around the world invest their time searching, refining and aggregating already, and some of these people are experts in a field of industry. Mahalo could provide browser tools to package the work these people are already doing, to share their effort with others. E.g. anyone using a browser uses the tools to package the results of their search (links, files, etc.), seemlessly upload into a light portal/social net to share with others - contributors could then be rated, et al, and be identified as experts in areas of knowledge. Business model would be paid tags/paid keyword ads, paid searches. Creating an alternate currency would enable those who contribute to access benefits from the site.
Look for help among all the founders of Webhelp from 1999-2002. Kerry Adler, now CEO of Skypower in Toronto (Brilliant Visionary and this was his brainchild), Hugh Cumming now CIO of ADP Canada (CIO and resident genius developed VOIP with zero latency IM back in 2000), Laura Hantho gainfully relaxed with owned fitness centers in Toronto (COO and perfect organizational manager) and myself, Dan Walter, who was privileged to be CMO for them. We had major success upon launch: first day 1million hits with 5 million per day by 3rd day, 1.5 million subscribers in 4 months and 30 million unique visitors in 4 months. We launched in November 1999. The company however elected to forgo the consumer market within 9 months and started online customer service chat, which it does today. You have a great business if you want to keep it with the right markets and grow it from there. You have 2 major markets and possible others, but 2 are primary with the right marketing and partners. I think this could be a great business if you're committed - and don't let anyone talk you out of it because they don't understand it! Best of Luck!
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.
Ankit S
Director - International Sales (eLearning Solutions) ankit.s@business-coordinators.com (LION 1000+)
Set-up a cost effective team in India target upto 1000 pages per week. Get more researchers etc. contact me :-) ankitshrivastava@yahoo.com
AJ K
VP, Marketing and Product at Caring.com
Best Answers in: Distribution (1), Career Management (1), E-Commerce (1)
A widget that would let someone grab a page and drop it onto their site or blog. Even better if it can be integrated into blog content - so when someone is writing about a topic they can instantly refer folks to Mahalo content.
This would instantly have appeal to those who have invested time to create the pages - and they should be your evangelizers - willing to both blog about it themselves and also comment on blogs in large numbers.
Clarification added June 7, 2007:
Even better if you have levels of participation, with badges for each. So, Mahalo Expert, Mahalo Contributor etc. Each badge would also link to the pages/terms they're passionate about. If you contribute in any way you should offer them the ability to 'thump their chest' about it.
In the end, you want all of these links on blogs or other sites pointing back to Mahalo for these terms. When this happens, the inbound link density may be such that Mahalo results will rise in organic listings for a number of terms.
I'm not sure I'd compare this to Ask, it's more like an early Yahoo! Directory, or a Wikipedia meets dmoz type of scenario.
Figure out the top 3 ways to generate revenue and impliment those ASAP and spend most of your time and resources focusing features and benefits that feed the 3 revenue models you decide on.
Basically, the worrying factor here is the human-powered motto.
Your major problem: Can you scale? The greatest human-powered site today is Wikipedia and you should look into their successful part (lots of people adding content and policing themselves) while avoiding their pitfalls (how to prevent anonymous moderators authorizing spam). For that, you would probably need a loyal user base that would get karma points for approving good sites, and sites would need to be approved by more than 2 moderators. The problem is of course, how to make people interested in getting karma points in your system.. What can you give them? Money, drive traffic to their sites by putting a "link of the minute" on the front page, etc..
And seriously, consider a name change... It's just too easy to misspell..
Clarification added June 7, 2007:
Also, setup a 'My mahalo' page where people could set-up their bookmarks online (design a Firefox add-on so that it is easy to add bookmarks directly in the browser and use them there). This would give you a major set of 'interesting' sites to index. This would be a bit like del.ici.ous and Yellow Pages merge.
Also, what mechanism do you have to remove stale content? It's important to make sure that you do not simply add a link and then forget about the site.
Your strategy of not being a destination is right as you are not deep enough; but you also can't be a search engine as you are not broad enough to hold the users. You should go horizontal above the destination and below the true search engine as a funnel, extend the Weblogs inc approach to contextual ads and add CPA revenues (by integrating a self service approach as the main funnel of the Mahalo pages). You should settle on a mix of purchased and organic traffic, but as a funnel, the purchased traffic should be profitable...Make $ from your marketing spend. Good luck.
Links:
Aloha !!
I think you then may want to drive more traffic your way ...
Well, with a name like 'Mahalo' one obvious suggestion comes to mind !
Why not conduct some sort of MVP rewards program campaign that gives randomly drawn wiki-board contributors and a few VIP mahalo staffers (as logistics coordinators, etc) an opportunity to go to Hawaii on a company sponsored trip and/or seminar, etc.
And yes, there is a recommendation for a great place to stay in Kona (two large houses right next to each other) ...
<strong><font color="blue">
http://www.lakohouse.com
</font></strong>
check it out and good luck !
mahalo nui loa !!
Links:
Clarification added June 7, 2007:
sorry for the unused HTML tags in the response ... wanted the url in blue ... (like the oceans around hawaii) ... oh well ...
Jason,
I visited Mahalo.com and at the bottom I found:
What is Mahalo?
Mahalo is the world's first human-powered search engine.
Was not Ask Jeeves human powered?
Hey Jason,
I think you have to think of it as the Rolex in the space and do everything from top to bottom as if you are inherently built better. It starts with the product i.e. making sure every search you do is 10x better. Like Rolex, you can rule the higher end (more difficult or complete search results). True to your brand you should have higher prices and be careful with your channels. I wouldn't put it everywhere... keep a bit of exclusivity, make sure that where it is it works very well for the medium. I'd focus on that aspect of the market that you can really address and let the machines rule the rest.
You could also talk to Garry Kasparov and others about how to beat computers. Evidently, he still says he could beat them if he could use a laptop as well.
Glad to see you are up to interesting stuff.
Best,
John
Hi Jason,
i really like Mahalo.com, congrats for the idea and for what you guys achieved so far.
Two things i would think about:
1. How can everyone out there be a guide for Mahalo.com? Maybe not a guide like the ones you have right now but what if you would find a way that everyone could contribute "something" to Mahalo.com? If you can figure this out, it would be very easy for you guys to scale in regards to the amount of pages, etc.
2. Create a mobile version of Mahalo.com and concentrate on guides that help people to find more relevant mobile internet sites. In my opinion one of the biggest problems in the mobile internet is that people don´t know where to go, or if a mobile version of a web site exists at all. Existing search engines are not much of a help here so this would be a very interesting approach and as far as i know, nobody is doing this right now. Then move into local information by letting guides and people add real life tags to objects or places. Get guides and people together based on the location.
I would also consider a more simple search results page. For example a text link for E-Mail this page, instead of an own box.
Again, i think you did a great Job!
Let me know if you guys ever need support with the mobile version. ;)
regards,
Bastian
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.
Jake K
Tech Strategy, M&A and Alliances
Best Answers in: Mergers and Acquisitions (5), Equity Markets (3), Planning (2), Hedge Funds (2), Venture Capital and Private Equity (1), Staffing and Recruiting (1), International Law (1)
Jason:
You have two choices: Focus or Go Horizontal.
If you want to focus then find the killer app. I went to Mahalo and while I found it interesting, I did not come away with, "the next time I want to do [X], I'm using Mahalo!". Own a horizontal online category activity (e.g. Travel - Orbitz, Mindless Videos - YouTube.com, Music - iTunes, Stocks - Yahoo! Finance, Electronics - cNet.com). I can see the asset that you're building clearly, however I don't see the application quite so clearly.
Find it and focus on it.
If you want to stay general, then you have to do the MyYahoo thing and enable personalization. Right now the content is too general to draw me back. Which means two things. One, give me a wow factor within my first 5 seconds that gives me a positive impression (blink). Two, allow me to easily customize and portalize Mahalo to my tastes and then you'll get repeated traffic (e.g. Amazon recommends).
I like the "killer app" option the best.
Best of luck.
Jason -
Differentiate yourself. Like several of the other comments said, you're doing a better job at what about.com and wikipedia have been doing for years. I think you've hit the TechCrunch, Digg, Reddit etc. crowd well, but we're going to go right back to google after we take the tour. You say you have people powered search, but when it gets right down to it, I'm still reading text on a page. Another person commented that AskJeeves was the first people driven search, so why not play on why that worked so well?
Make your operators live. Build a chat window next to every query, and let people ask your operators narrowing queries. Get them to stay on the page and talk to other searchers, and promote the ones who offer good advice. Take what you were doing with promoting community at the digg-ified Netscape.com, and apply it to search, and apply it live.
That would be something I could get excited about. Wiki-fied search, with real people, and netscape/digg/reddit-style moderation.
Speak with Chad Little who launched a very similar concept with "MyGeek.com" in Phoeenix in the mid-90's and find out what he would have done differently since they couldn't keep it going. Try to learn from their mistakes.
Reginald A
Professional Development Training, Alternative Dispute Resolution Consultant, Educator, Faith Based Counselor
Reginald A suggests this expert on this topic:
give people non-monetary rewards for posting feedback or links to Mahalo. the most powerful feedback is status.
Links:
One thing I'd do quickly, which is not difficult is to open a new tab or page when I click on a link in a Mahalo search....my browser is Mozilla and defaults to a new tab, but clicking on a Mahalo result open in the same window....
Tamara R
Games / Digital Entertainment Executive
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Create a board of core evangelists with expertise in each of your areas. They can begin to populate your message boards, network with other leading experts in these fields, etc.
To play more to your strengths of human-edited and hand-picked content, let people know WHO is picking the content - and let the sites they choose as "editor's choices" link from their info page.
Agree with several other posters; you need a more obvious and inviting way users can submit/idenfiy sites to generate leads on your front page. This will help you blow past the 500 pages per week.
Also I have done several searches and did not turn up any blogs. It would be good to include choice ones in relevant subcategories.
Good luck - cool product!!
Tamara R also suggests this expert on this topic:
Zennie A
Founder, CEO: Sports Business Simulations: Experienced online marketer,video-blogger, game programmer and SEO expert
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Hey Jason,
Mahalo is an exciting product, but when one visits the front page, it's confusing. It seemed like a search engine, but then I had to remind myself who "Kelsey Smith" was; for a second I thought she was one of your writers, then my memory popped into place, sadly.
I clicked around because I was compelled to by your question. But a normal user would be turned off by the user design. It does not follow the "Tell me what this is" rule; I have to guess at it.
It's better to have a page that is more like Technorati's home page WAS before the recent redesign. Now, it's terrible. But the old design was more viral. The home page should mate my account info and other personal information with the overall "what's happening" news that's presented.
So if I were you, that would be my next "do" and as part of that, place a special section for videos.
Thanks,
Zennie
Zennie Abraham, Jr.
Chairman and CEO
Sports Business Simulations
510-387-9809
http://www.sbs-world.com
http://www.sbstickets.com
Say Aloha.
Change your profile to say that you are the CEO of Mahalo :)
Good luck!
Alex
Links:
No matter what you end up doing, KISS it: Keep it simple, stupid!
1. Add RSS search bots (ie I want to have a feed to "Jason Calacanis" via Mahalo that updates each time that search result page is updated).
1A. Track the bejeezus out of those (and all) RSS feeds, and turn that into $ for brand marketers et alia.
2. Allow for simple / enhanced results. We data geeks want ALL the goods RIGHT NOW, but people like things simpler with the option to go deep. (Maybe an Ajax function could help here a la MyYahoo.)
2A. Consider personalization: My Yahoo has had very few competitors over time, but Mahalo could add a really neat dimension here -- a dashboard / heads-up display that's fed by people, perhaps your peeps who also have a My Mahalo page.
Aji I
Founder of SEOforClients.com, Speaker, Mentor, Business consultant, Web marketing Evangelist & Christian Leader
I will try to do it something new. If you are making a SE/Dir you are competing with Google.com, dmoz.org, hedir.com. If you need to beat you need to show uniqueness. Google is Google not because of its data mining algo but because of its data.
I am working on a different SE where I can make it on the top of Google, so where Google stops I will start.
If I was the CEO I would rethink of making another Search Engine which has nothing special to offer. I search for debt and I got crap.
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Links:
Let Elliot run the company!!
