My Mahalo preview at SES New York

Had a blast at SES New York this week... at the conference we previewed some new features called My Mahalo that build semantic relationships between our users and object in our database (fancy way of saying you and the thing you own, have seen, want to see, want to read, etc.). These features take the social graph (fancy way of saying your friends) and integrates it into search results.

We got some nice insightful feedback on the product:

CNET: Mahalo Adds User Reviews to Search Site (March 19, 2008)
CenterNetworks: Mahalo Launches Reviews and Ratings; CEO Shares Company Stats (March 19, 2008)
Mashable: My Mahalo Released: Crowd Sourcing Gets a Little More Social (March 19, 2008)
Search Engine Watch: Mahalo Adds New Social Search Tools (March 19, 2008)
Search Engine Watch: Q&A with Jason Calacanis, Founder & CEO, Mahalo.com (March 19, 2008)
Webware: Mahalo Adds User Reviews to Search Site (March 19, 2008)
Search Engine Roundtable: Keynote with Jason Calacanis - Official Launch of My Mahalo (March 19, 2008)

We also spent some time doing interviews with the SES team. I'll post a couple here.

Mar 20th 2008 3:07PM
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1. Jason,

Are you going to translate Mahalo in other languages? I speak and write fluently 5... I will work for you at $200 an hour ;)

Posted at 3:23PM on Mar 20th 2008 by Vlad

2. I love the features. I've done a blog about it on Lockergnome and a podcast about the service at http://www.dailypwn.com. Very nice, and well worth checking into.

Posted at 3:28PM on Mar 20th 2008 by Matt Ryan

3. Jason, is there a recording of your keynote speech anywhere? I would love to see/hear it!

Posted at 3:54PM on Mar 20th 2008 by Monty

4. Yes... here: http://audio.webmasterradio.fm/NonMembers/03-19-08-SES-New-York-Jason-Calcanis-Keynote.mp3

Posted at 4:13PM on Mar 20th 2008 by Larry M

5. What I'd like to see someone do (and it looks like you're on your way there with Mahalo), is to expand the concept of social relevance in search results.

Not only would I find it interesting what my nearest "friends" on facebook, linkedin or other social sites think about certain products or news that I search on, or what the top guides on Mahalo think, but in some cases I'd like to know what people in my hometown, state, tax bracket, education level think.

It'd be great to have a bar that I could slide to adjust the social relevance of the search results. When I'm searching for a car I might care more about a mix of what men in my state with a certain income find most relevant, while when I'm searching for information on hiking, I might care more about what people in my hometown find most relevant (which would presumably point me to good hikes near my home).

Posted at 5:22PM on Mar 20th 2008 by hyloka

6. I was at your keynote this week and was greatly impressed with the direction Mahalo is taking. For a long time I've felt that "relevancy" was too subjective to be handled entirely properly by machines and the solution that gets it right will find a way to consider the user(s) (or the social graph, if you prefer) when determining what is relevant and what isn't.

Posted at 8:06PM on Mar 20th 2008 by Tin Pig

7. Jason,

I was extremely interested in hearing the last answer before the WebmasterRadio audo ended.

Are there any issues with replacing or moving the paid search results on Google with the Mahalo toolbar?

Good speech. I especially liked the Jay-Z hustling reference.

- Brad

Posted at 1:01AM on Mar 21st 2008 by Brad

8. After doing more research on what My Mahalo is going to do for search, I have to say that Mahalo is certainly living up to the promise Jason set forth when the project started. He stated from the beginning this is a 5 year project and as months go by, the vision is falling into place. Mahalo could very well capture a very real gain in the world of search through innovation and integration found on My Mahalo. The idea of allowing it to interface with other browsers will no doubt bring eyes to Mahalo as the concept goes viral.

Part of me wishes that Google and Microsoft keep their hands in their pockets on this one. As much as they leap at other's ideas and try to make it their own, this is a project that needs to be seen through.

Posted at 2:13PM on Mar 21st 2008 by Matt Ryan

9. Jason,

Your Scoble interview gave me a good glimpse of what ur are trying to do thru Mahalo. I think a lot of ppl on the net are just too uppity for their own peril. They seem to just be hating for the sake of it. Good to know that u have thick skin, and you are definitely battle-tested. Keep up the good work..

Posted at 7:55PM on Mar 23rd 2008 by Phil

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