Mahalo is search engine that is ‘social’; in this case meaning, community edited. These means real people compile the index and earn $$$ while they’re at it. The best thing about this model is a SPAM free index. However, most of the results are pretty top-level and predictable if you’re searching a topic you’ve explored before. The results feel similiar to the Yahoo directory or DMOZ. This may be a good or bad thing, depending on your needs. Personally, I think it has a value, but not very often. I’ll use Malhalo if I’m intentionally looking for thin results for a less urgent query; it’s just that this kind of search is usually satisfied quickly enough with Google, even with the extra fluff I would get. I may have only used Malhalo 10 times in my life.

Jason Calacanis, pseudo-SEO and affiliate marketing champion, was a keynote speaker at SMX on April 22. Mr. Calacanis consistently stirs up controversy, gets SEOs talking, gets lots of notoriety, and ‘flame links’. On Bruce Clay’s blog, they quote Calacanis:

SEO is a wasted industry. You’re wasting your time fighting off ranking problems instead of creating great content. You’re just spinning your wheels hoping the Google gods won’t kick you out. It’s a bad way to live your life. Using a human service is a better way to go about it.

Calacanis also goes to speak about how many sites who hire SEOs don’t deserve to be ranked.

Strong words. Wow. SEOs are mad right now – tweets are flying, forums are flaring, and blogs are, well, blogging. I’ll be honest, I’m not as angry. Just looking at the statement above, I can’t say I totally disagree. Let’s look at it line by line.

1. SEO is a wasted industry.
   Um. Uhhhh…. why am I defending him again? Ok, I admit – this is asinine. This is probably an intentionally crafted, sensationalized comment to get our attention. It worked! Jason vantage point is slightly obstructed by Malhalo I think.
2. You’re wasting your time fighting off ranking problems instead of creating great content.
   Wasting my time? If it works, it’s for the forces of good, and it’s creating a good experience, it’s not wasting, but I do agree that creating relevant, user friendly content is paramount. I would always recommend content creation before 98% of the other tactics. That doesn’t mean I dismiss the other tactics. See my point?
3. You’re just spinning your wheels hoping the Google gods won’t kick you out.
   Another ‘baby with the bathwater’ scenario; if we’re spinning our wheels then our tactics aren’t working. Lots of tactics don’t. Lots of SEOs sell tactics they know don’t yield big results. Is that Jason’s thought? Would Google kick us out because tactics are bad, and NOT content? Or because tactics don’t tend to rank well for very long. Not sure about this line – too ambivalent, let’s move on.
4. It’s a bad way to live your life.
   Sure, If you’re shady.
5. Using a human service is a better way to go about it.
   And… here’s the Malhalo pitch! Could a human service be better? Sure – if it were 10,000x’s larger, and all the workers could promise diversity, relevancy, and user experience. If it would only reach a growth of 5,000x’s larger, then maybe it could be at least as good/bad as algorithms are today. I think I’m going to hang my hope on the algorithms for now.