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?

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.

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.

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.

>> 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