Mahalo plans to pay users who add “topic pages” to search engine
Mahalo, the underdog search engine that depends on human-generated content for a spam-free experience, has decided to pay users who add more content to its network. Right now it only has 100,000 pages in its system and draws 5 million unique monthly users. The only… Continue Reading
Roundup: Twitter’s lack of youth, Google Local’s new dashboard, and more
Here’s the latest action:
Young adults not embracing Twitter (yet) – The microblogging service has found an older audience than Facebook’s early users.
Google Local gives small businesses their own web dashboard – The dashboard, designed to lure businesses to claim their profiles on Local, will deliver something akin… Continue Reading
Semantic search engine Evri cuts staff by 25 percent
Evri, the search engine that lets you track keyword results across the web, confirmed today that it has cut its staff by 25 percent to better weather the economic downturn. Chief executive Neil Roseman says the Seattle-based company is doing well, having recently landed two… Continue Reading
Roundup: Brin backs Parkinson’s study, iPhone gets shakable ads, and more
Google co-founder backs major Parkinson’s study – Sergey Brin says he plans to contribute money and DNA to a study run by his wife Anne Wojcicki’s startup 23andMe.
Dockers introduces shakable iPhone ad — Users can shake their iPhones to make urban street dancer Dufon perform his moves…. Continue Reading
Roundup: VC departure complications, Facebook ToS issues not stopping growth, and more
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Pierre Lamond’s departure from Sequoia: It’s complicated — The famed venture capitalist left top investing firm Sequoia Capital earlier this week to join fellow investor Vinod Khosla — but his defection doesn’t appear to have been as amicable as it first appeared, and… Continue Reading
Jason Calacanis’ “Project A” is surprisingly compelling Mahalo Answers
Today, Jason Calacanis launches Mahalo Answers — the latest project from Mahalo, his “human powered search engine”. Mahalo Answers is a possibly clever cross between Yahoo’s free-wheeling Q&A bonanza at Yahoo Answers, and Google’s highly researched pay-to-play Google Answers service, which was closed down two… Continue Reading
RIP: The Controlled Message
[Editor's Note: It's been several weeks since Sequoia Capital's ominous meeting with its portfolio companies warning of tough times ahead. Not much has changed since, but the message has sunk in across Silicon Valley. While Sequoia was full of directives for withstanding the downturn --... Continue Reading
Startup depression brings job cuts to Mahalo
Tech entrepreneur Jason Calacanis announced today that his “people-powered search engine” Mahalo has laid off slightly less than 10 percent of its staff.
By making the cuts, Mahalo can extend its “runway” to profitability, which is necessary with the economic downturn and the resulting disappearance of… Continue Reading
Roundup: European leaders agree on rescue plan, Microsoft to release Silverlight 2 and more
Here’s the latest action:
European leaders agree on financial rescue plan — The move will involve the injection of billions of Euros into banks in Germany, France and other countries. It was spurred by a similar British plan announced last week.
Memeorandum Colors visualizes political bias — The new… Continue Reading
Roundup: Online display ads are weak, controversial Knol, and more
Online display ads not so much better than print ads — In one of the hardest-hitting pieces yet this year on the online advertising industry, AdAge’s Abbey Klaassen dissects the perils of the display (banner) advertising business. In a nutshell, online banner ads that appear next… Continue Reading
Search Wikia takes a step closer to the promise of ’search meets Wikipedia’
When the guy behind Wikipedia launches a search engine, the world is going to watch. And watch they did when Jimmy Wales unveiled Search Wikia in January — perhaps a little too closely. I say that because while some were expecting to see a “Google-killer“,… Continue Reading
Niche social networks welcome: Wikia open-sources social tools
Community wiki-building site Wikia, has announced that it’s allowing its social networking platform to become open source. This will allow anyone to easily create a social community complete with profiles, avatars, friending, etc… within their MediaWiki-based wiki sites.
For a good example of a social network… Continue Reading
People-powered search engine Mahalo may be growing fast
We’ve been skeptical of Mahalo in the past, because it’s not clear how the “human-powered search engine” could be more accurate than — or gain market share from — algorithm-based search engines like Google.
Today, web analytics firm Hitwise has an interesting post showing traffic to… Continue Reading
Human powered search engine Mahalo raising $20M
[Update: This story is confirmed]
Mahalo, the search engine that is powered by humans — furiously writing up results on those topics frequently asked by searchers — is seeking to raise a $20 million round of financing at very high valuation, we’re told.
We’re hearing Mahalo founder… Continue Reading
Will Google get trounced by upstarts TechMeme, Facebook?
updated
Robert Scoble, the tech blogger, has drawn a lot of attention with a talk about why Google is beginning to fail as a search engine, and how upstarts may eat its lunch within a few years.
It is provocatively titled Why Mahalo, TechMeme, and Facebook are… Continue Reading
Roundup: Skype’s offer, Calacanis, Acoona, Zoho, Bluebet, Tafiti, WikiScanner, more
Here’s the latest action:
Skype trying to buy back customer love — Skype is sending out notes to users saying they’ll get a week’s worth of free service. The San Jose Internet phone company says it has 196 million users and reported earlier this year that it… Continue Reading
Mahalo: If you can’t beat them, follow them
Mahalo, the search engine that relies on humans to organize results around popular search returns, has released a toolbar that gives you supplemental results to the ones you get from Google.
The new release by Mahalo, launched by scrappy entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, is called Mahalo Follow,… Continue Reading
Google’s rickety search engine, the challengers and Microsoft stealth project
Google has provided a NYT reporter rare access to some secrets of Google’s search engine. Unfortunately, it’s like in the Wizard of Oz, when Dorothee’s dog Tito pulls away the curtain exposing something that is much less impressive than you’d hoped.
We’re so used to hearing… Continue Reading