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Mahalo: A new search engine says 'Hello World'

When human-powered search engine Mahalo launched in alpha earlier this month, comparisons to Google Search were inevitable. In reality, Mahalo is to Google like pie is to brussels sprouts. They're both food, but pie is much more fun to eat.

Mahalo is the brainchild of uber-entreprenuer Jason Calacanis (the founder of Weblogs, Inc. and, by extension, this blog) and could position itself to become a viable alternative to the stodgy-but-familiar Google behemoth. Though it's not ready for prime time just yet, we took a walk through the site and snagged a few screen shots along the way.

Gallery: Mahalo



Mahalo is an extremely comprehensive site that culls the best features of About.com, Wikipedia, and, yes, even Google, to bring users a wide array of results that include video, images, text, and more. For example, a query of English rock band The Cure brings up results that include MP3s from iTunes and Rhapsody, videos from You Tube, images from Flickr, and even a link to Ticketmaster to see if they're touring (unfortunately, no). As an added touch, some pages even offer "criticism and controversies" related to the topic, to give it a well-rounded feel.

Armed with a team of "guides" who are laying the data input groundwork, Jason Calacanis says his vision is to catalog 10,000 of the Internet's most popular search terms by year's end. To help achieve such a daunting task (they're currently hovering around 4,000 pages of terms), Mahalo harnesses the power of Interwebs by encouraging visitors to recommend sites and links, which are then reviewed and posted by topic guides.

Though always great for research and information gathering, search engines really show their mettle when it comes to digesting current events and breaking news. Mahalo was put to the test recently when news reports of a terrorist plot at New York's JFK Airport began to emerge. Mahalo guide Lon Harris had a page up on the site within minutes. While other search engines simply aggregated links to news sites, Mahalo's page displayed links to blogs, message boards, and related searches on terrorism.

Since Mahalo is still working out some kinks, it's a little early to tell how well it will it do in the long run, but folks are already creating widgets and badges for it so it seems the site is gaining traction fairly quickly. The optional registration process is quick and painless so head over to Mahalo to search your favorite topics and recommend some links of your own -- but check out some screen shots in the Download Squad Gallery first.

Gallery: Mahalo

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