A week ago I wrote about how I was going to try Mahalo for a week, in an never ending attempt to break myself from the habits that I have formed with tools and services. So it has been a week, actually over because of the holiday, and overall I must say Mahalo is a lot more useful than some have made it out to be. I had heard all sorts of reviews about the service before actually trying it myself. So here is the breakdown:
Initial Expectations:
I was a non believer that Mahalo would be able to replace Google for the majority of my searches. I did not believe that the “static” content generated by a human would be current, relevant, or what I needed. On top of that, there was the natural resistance to let go of the control with my searches. You know the whole, “I am a geek, I know how to find what I am looking for.” mentality. My rules were simple: all information seeking would be done with Mahalo first, and then if I could not find what I was looking for I would resort to common searching methods.
Where Mahalo Shines:
I found that Mahalo is better at current events and general topics than most search engines. They have vast information on television shows, movies, and can get information to those pages quickly. This is the type of information that I would be searching Google News for, because it’s so new that Google’s robot hasn’t indexed it yet. I was surprised with how much Mahalo was able to work for me, even when it came to events that were new and still evolving. Mahalo nicely organizes relevant information on a single page, that is easy to read through and continue on my way; no pagination, no mixed tabbing, not sponsored results, no BS… just information I am looking for.
Where Mahalo Lacks:
As a software engineer a lot of my searches are specific error codes, or search strings that it’s not reasonable for Mahalo to create a page on. Mahalo nicely will show Google search results for those searches so I do not need to up and move over to Google myself. Aside from that, there were some more nerdy topics that I was disappointed to find Mahalo had not covered. Understandably, they might not have a guide with background in this area, or it might not be high enough on their priority list. But as I got addicted to the Mahalo juice, when it did not work for me I found myself let down. Not necessarily a bad thing for Mahalo, it means their service is working for me.
Where Mahalo Would Be Better:
If Mahalo could strike a deal with Google, to be in their search results: game over! Imagine searching for reviews on the newest movie that you and your family are going to see over the holiday weekend. A little Mahalo icon up at the top, with some sort of text saying “all the information you need on XXX movie!”. Or better yet maybe two or three of Mahalo results at the top, would guarantee that those are good results for Google. It could be much like that Google does for it’s product search. For one, this would most likely lead to an acquisition of Mahalo on Google’s part; not bad for Jason Calacanis and team. On top of that, it would change the way most people search. Here you have filtered, vetted results and the top that most likely cover what you are looking for, and then if those do not work: here is everything else on the web.
Sure why would Google want to partner with what is arguably a competitor? Well first, I do not feel Mahalo is a competitor of Google. They are both search engines yes, but they work in completely different ways and both have their strong points. Second, Google’s all about organizing the worlds information and making it readily available for consumers. I think having human filtered search results mixed in with regular results would fall under that category.
In the short while, Mahalo should buy up adwords for common search query terms and link them to their pages on those terms. It would be great exposure for Mahalo, and would mimic the above short of a partnership.
What Will Stop Mahalo From Succeeding:
Right now I am really impressed with how quickly and relevant the search results on Mahalo are. But over time, will it scale? I certainly do not know the infrastructure over at Mahalo, but I am sure they have build a plan to combat this. From the front end, this is really what could ruin Mahalo for me. After a short week, I now go to Mahalo for topics that I know they will be up to date on, even if it’s a news event that just happened. If that changes, all it takes is a handful of incidents for the service to no longer be reliable for me. As more and more people take to the web, the list of topics that Mahalo will need to cover will grow. This means Mahalo will need more human-power, which is more expensive than adding computers like other search engines do. Right now they seem to be doing well, and I hope that continues.
Best of luck!
