Website Hype

Mahalo means “thank you” in Hawaiian, and now it means a great deal more than that. Mahalo.com is a human search engine, or web directory, which was launched in alpha test in May 2007 by Jason Calacanis, and January 2008 saw the project go beta. What the site offers is the tracking and building of hand-crafted result sets for many of the currently popular words that are being searched. This makes it different from the algorithmic search engines such as the ever-popular and ever-loved Google.

So what is a human search engine exactly? Working on one of these sounds like a pretty labourious and never-ending enterprise. Well, a human search engine is a type of search engine that uses human participation to filter search results and help its users clarify their search request. They provide users with a limited number of relevant results, whereas the traditional search engines return a great number of results some of which may be relevant, and a substantial number which probably aren’t.

Incorporating human nous into the process helps particularly when a potentially ambiguous word is searched. If Mahalo can’t help you, (I tried typing in the name of my obscure little home town in England), it provides links via other search engines that can provide you with some information.

Mahalo makes interesting browsing, with the directory having sections on News, Celebrity Gossip, Games, Sports, Gadgets, Shopping, Entertainment, Music and so on – it’s like having a really good magazine to read. There is even a Mahalo Daily Video which is heaps of fun, and packed with info.

So to the creators of Mahalo, I have simply this to say – thank you, Mahalo.