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The Secret is Out: Mahalo.com

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.

From the press prelease:

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
  2. Mahalo Blog
  3. Techcrunch Coverage
  4. D Conference Coverage
  5. FOX News
  6. Wall Street Journal

 

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10 Responses to “The Secret is Out: Mahalo.com”

  1. Thayan says:

    Wow.. Cool… :)

  2. David Mead says:

    Very cool – i’l be looking to add it to my Flock/Firefox search and kicking the tires.

  3. Gerall says:

    Interesting… Good job, Chris!

    I’ll be kicking the tires as well.

    -pax-

  4. Clair says:

    Sweet! Lookin’ forward to giving it a spin.

  5. IplaytheFool says:

    Something to look forward to at the end of the year !

  6. Hip hip! and all that… good luck with Mahalo, Chris!

  7. pixie says:

    I dig it! Congrats to all of you! Tire kicking has already commenced…

  8. Ed Dale says:

    So – which section are you working on? Or what part of the site?