Unquiet Desperation

[](http://www.mahalo.com)

This is the project I’ve been working on for the last few months, which I have not been able to talk about until now. The Big Secret is now out, and we are live. Say hello to [Mahalo](http://www.mahalo.com).

From the [press prelease](http://www.mahalo.com/Mahalo_PR):
>**Human-powered search engine Mahalo.com launches with investors including Sequoia Capital, Elon Musk, Newscorp, CBS and Burda Media.**
>
>Wall Street Journal’s D Conference (Northern San Diego), May 30th, 2007: Serial entrepreneur Jason McCabe Calacanis today launched Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine, at the Wall Street Journal’s D Conference. The site is currently being launched in Alpha with the Internet’s 4,000 most popular search terms completed. The Santa Monica-based company hopes to reach 10,000 search terms by the end of the year. At that point it will enter Beta, and launch shortly thereafter.
>
>”We’re in month five of a five-year project,” explained Calacanis, “but we wanted to get some real-world feedback, so we’re launching it early here at D Conference.”
>
>The site is focused on the top English-language search terms, including verticals such as travel, products, news, entertainment, sports, food, and health. “Google’s mission is to index the world’s information; our mission is to curate that wonderful index,” said Calacanis. “It’s my belief that humans can play a significant role in the development of search results and we’re going to try to figure out exactly what that role is over the next couple of years. I am really looking forward to hearing what people think of the Alpha,” he added.
>
>..Additionally, the firm announced that it has closed two rounds of financing to date. Lead investors include Sequoia Capital, Elon Musk and NewsCorp. Additional investors include CBS, Hubert Burda Media, Allen & Co., David Bradley, Gigi Brisson, Sandy Climan, Mark Cuban, Matt Coffin, Ted Leonsis, Jonathan Miller, Mark Pincus, Ryan Scott, and Fred Wilson.

Check out the following links for some more information:

1. [Mahalo FAQ](http://www.mahalo.com/Mahalo_FAQ)
2. [Mahalo Blog](http://blog.mahalo.com)
3. [Techcrunch Coverage](http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/30/jason-calacanis-launches-mahalo-today-human-powered-search/)
4. [D Conference Coverage](http://d5.allthingsd.com/20070530/mahalo-search/)
5. [FOX News](http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007May30/0,4670,HumanSearch,00.html)
6. [Wall Street Journal](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118056234795419124.html?mod=googlenews_wsj)

Tags: Allen & Co., CBS, David Bradley, Food & Drink, Fred Wilson, Gigi Brisson, Google, Google's mission, html, Hubert Burda, human-powered search engine, Jason McCabe Calacanis, Jonathan Miller, Mahalo.com, Mark Cuban, Mark Pincus, Matt Coffin, Newscorp, Ryan Scott, San Diego, Sandy Climan, Santa Monica, search engine, search results, search terms, Sequoia Capital, Serial entrepreneur, Ted Leonsis, the Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.