Mahalo Search Engine

My interest in online search goes back to when I was managing a company and paying out more money than I thought was reasonable to have our state library service do online searches for the company.

And although they were no doubt doing the best they could, the great stacks of continuous sheets of printout seemed to contain more irrelevant than relevant information.

I wanted our researchers to have a more direct access. But it was a small company, without a huge research budget.

Then when I discovered AltaVista I thought several Christmases had come at once. 

But lately, much as I admire what Yahoo! and Google especially have achieved, I’m getting that feeling from all those years ago that a service that is supposed to be helpful is actually making life more complicated.

Is it possible that algorithms might not be as good as humans at finding the answer I’m looking for?

Like those librarians of yore who used to know how to point you to what could well be the exact book or periodical you needed? Before they had to take on the role of managing access to the library’s Internet access points.

Hope springs eternal. Is Mahalo part of the answer?

Newly launched Mahalo is described as “the world’s first human-powered search engine powered by an enthusiastic and energetic group of Guides”.

I was impressed enough by the explanation (better than the official FAQ, actually) and favourable comments of Steven E. Streight (aka Vaspers the Grate) that I went to the Mahalo site, entered a few search terms and then when nothing much on those terms came up submitted the terms for consideration, via the very easy form.

Mercifully they do not ask for where you are from, your gender, age, favorite music or other such information of great interest to marketing data acquirers but a boring task to have to keep filling out.

Valleywag’s 10 Predictions About Mahalo offers a sceptical view. And some of the commenters there don’t seem to be admirers of Jason Calacanis.