So obviously recent events has me thinking more about Mahalo and their proposed model of organizing information. It’s spectacularly flawed not just in scalability, but in it’s core concept. Consider the following:
With the Mahalo model a given result is created by an editor. It is up to that editor, or group of editors, to be the sole decision maker in what businesses get exposure. You have to wonder how they will make this decision or gather their pool of options to select from. My guess would be they’ll search Google, which is just a big fat bit of sad irony. But regardless of that, with this small group of people crafting these results you are likely to get a page heavy with big name manufacturers and big box retailers, people everyone has heard of. In Scoble’s HDTV example that is exactly what you have. So I guess if you are a new product entry into the market, or a comparatively small fry in the retail space, you are SOL. Maybe you could send an email or flyer to the editors: “Hey, please review my new business for consideration!” Or…
You could use an algorithmic based engine that allows the chance for everyone to gain momentum and climb in the rankings as their popularity driven by their marketing efforts dictate. The big guys with the big names and the big popularity will be found among the top. But mom and pop have the opportunity do some clever marketing and get a little time to shine and hopefully gain traction to build their business. SEO helps businesses compete and get exposure and anybody can do it, big or small.
Mahalo, this is what we call a “free market”, which is different than the Oligarchy-like marketplace you envision as Utopia. I wouldn’t expect you to understand, as a search of “free market” on Mahalo yields the familiar “We haven’t written a result page for ‘free market’ yet. Why?” Ooo! Me! Me! Because you don’t have a clue!
As a side note, people who think in terms of “utopia” usually end up committing genocide on their own people right before the free market practicers of the world push them back into a bunker where they put an end to their grand schemes with a lead bullet.
7 Comments
>> With the Mahalo model a given result is created by
>> an editor. It is up to that editor, or group of
>> editors, to be the sole decision maker in what
>> businesses get exposure.
Thanks for the post Terry. While you are correct that the *first* version of a SERP is created by an individual editor, the fact is that those SERPs are then:
a) Quality controlled by two other editors
and
b) Quality controlled by the public
We allow for public debate, on our message boards, of *every* single link on the page. Additionally we have made the promise to site owners that we will look at every single submitted link and give an answer as to why we are including it (i.e. it’s great), excluding it (i.e. it’s bad or spam), or leaving it in the “user recommend links” section (i.e. we want to get more public feedback on it).
So, at the end of the day we’re MORE open than any other search engine out there because we are willing to have a 100% transparent discussion with our members–not just our editors–about what should be on the page.
In our model we think we can get the pages to 60-80% complete, but we need the public to help finish the SERPs. We have no bias or agenda when building these SERPs with the exception of asking “does this link help the user.” That’s it.
Also, if we were to become biased and we started treating folks unfairly we would never build an audience… so, the whole concept is based on a transparent and fair debate about what should be on the page…. by REAL people (as opposed to Wikipedia in many cases).
Mahalo again for thinking about these complex issues…. we’re VERY focused on your points and if you find anything you think is biased please call us out on it IMMEDIATELY!
all the best,
Jason
If you can accomplish this, I think that’s great, but please learn from the failures of DMOZ and Wikipedia. There’s a fine balance of discussion and speed of updating that needs to be struck in order to provide the same kind of value people get from conventional search. I’ve said it before, but search marketers should be your allies on this, and past statements seem to have been made to alienate us. If you wouldn’t mind differentiating spammers from legit SEO, then you would have some people who have the time and motivation to help you flesh out these SERPs. I have no interest marketing to people who my site’s aren’t relevant too, and I have a vested interest in making my site’s a quality user experience that brings something to the table. That’s good marketing, and that’s SEO.
Hi Terry, While you may be “one” of those very few so-called SEO’s who actually do their best to make the web better for the entire internet, including whatever search engine or directory we are referring to; there are the “great” many SEO’s out there who do Not do this. This is why the industry has the bad rap it does and is exactly why Jason Calcanis feels the way he does about the industry.
I agree with him in many ways. I also think Mahalo is working hard with the model they chose to work with. It’s nothing like Google and that’s not why it was created. To try to paint the picture of comparison between the two is silly.
I have no idea why our industry is soooo focused on Jason and Mahalo, but some of us find it extremely funny stuff. Our industry should be looking at ourselves just a little bit instead of trying to find blame with others outside the industry. It’s not Jason’s fault he feels the way he does….. it is OUR fault. Many people “outside” feel the same way as Jason; this is nothing new at all as it’s been the same way for over 10 years now. Unless or until this industry grows up to smell the coffee, things will only get worse.
Well, IF the search results were dominated by irrelevant junk instead of MAYBE a couple out of the top 10 every other query or so I’d agree. The truth is search results are good, and have steadily gotten better. Spam was a major problem say in 1997 when you could search dining room tables and get porn, but that isb’t the case now.
And I do take issue with people essentially slandering what I do for a living in such public ways and with such direct and intentionally damaging phrasing. Things like “SEO is going to be looked at as a footnote in the history of the internet and search–a time we’ll want to forget.” It ain’t right, no matter how many bad apples there might be in our bunch, and I hate to disagree but that ratio is far lower than you are portraying. If Jason can start separating SEO from spam when he makes public statements then I will move more towards listening to him with an open mind and less from thinking he’s just being an ignorant attention grabber at the expense of hard working professionals.
As far as my comparing Mahalo with Google, that’s a comparison put forward by many before and then you have people like Scoble making exact and illustrated comparison to Google. I didn’t draw that comparison, it has already been done.
oh, I’m not saying search results at Google are full of spam. Far from it as Google is doing better and better at weeding out the spam. The thing is; look at what the “seo’s” are doing right now? It’s simply Unprofessional. The social media hype bandwagon most are on is truly not helping the cause as it’s mostly to network among themselves. Where’s the teaching? There isn’t any.
Look at all the “seo” types doing their best to write articles about how to “keep under the radar” of Google? Those types of articles are out there in abundance. How does this help our cause? It doesn’t.
We wonder why Jason feels like he does, but then just don’t understand the “why” he feels that way. I understand totally and does a few others in the industry, but we are a small group. Not all SEO’s are bad. That’s the only thing I disagree with Jason about, but do I think this so-called SEO only thing will be a profession in 5 years? Know I do not.
So then…
You never, ever take word of mouth advice from friends or associates on anything then? You always Google for information on local restaurants, instead of asking a friend who’s been there?
Has it occurred to you that Mahalo could be one of many sources a person consults for information?
Sure, and I never said that a search engine should be your only source of information. But, others have said things like Mahalo will end search engines because they are superior. I refute that assertion, nothing whatsoever about using search engines and search engines only.