Jason Calacanis has announced an expansion to the Mahalo social platfrom that allows users to access most major social networking sites within Mahalo itself.
The idea of social networking site aggregation or single landing page isn’t new, we’ve covered startups aiming to provide a similar service, such as MyLifeBrand, ProfileLinker and Loopster, but none have really captured the imagination of the broader internet. Mahalo is trying to better these services by becoming the front page destination for those looking to access sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube and others.
Setup is easy enough. You simply add your user name or user ID into the boxes provided, and it then pulls your profiles from each service. It’s not perfect yet, for example you have to provide your full URL for Facebook (which they noted) and LinkedIn (which they didn’t note). From there you can visit each page via tabs on Mahalo itself. I found that maybe half of the pages I opened remembered my ID and I had immediate access to use the sites, others didn’t at first, but after logging in work fine.
I wont fully revisit the whole is Mahalo a great service debate here other than to say that someone once described Mahalo to me as search for the mentally challenged (well he used another word, use your imagination). I’ve always thought that was a little unfair, it’s perhaps search for the Google and/ or Boolean illiterate (so I’m not the target market), but there is value there for the general consumer market. I’m not about to switch to using Mahalo for search tomorrow and I’d expect most of you reading this wont, but ignore the search and take a look at Mahalo Multiprofiles.
It’s well implemented, handy, and its something I can see myself using. We still aren’t at the ultimate point of proper social networking aggregation yet (see Google Socialstream for how it will eventually work) but in the mean time Mahalo Multiprofiles may well find favor among the many who struggle to keep up with their ever growing number of social network sites.
On a related note, I cant help that wonder exactly in which direction Mahalo is heading. Mahalo offers a social networking platform that now does aggregation, and on the search side it’s starting to look more and more like Weblogs Inc than a search engine, check out the Celebrity Gossip pages as an example: that’s not search results, that looks and smells like content generation to me. Calacanis has always been good a building multiple traffic streams so it’s probably part of that strategy, but at the current rate Mahalo wont primarily be a search tool by the end of 2008.
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mr. riley, mr. “i film puppies” calacanis has said it’s not a search engine, it’s a content site.
he realizes now that lindsay lohan gossip will pay more than a search will.
I hate to say it, and maybe one of these days I’ll put my criticism into action, but to me this is a perfectly backwards approach to the problem. This is a continuing example of a 90s sticky-portal mentality.
are you kidding me? inline frames? this is ridiculous - it’s like opening all these sites in your tabs in firefox, only more cramped, with some half-arsed social aspects to it, and eventually I’m guessing with some nice juicy mahalo advertising splattered everywhere.
DO NOT WANT.
How can it be fastest growing search if my friend or anyone who has heard mahalo?
Is Alexa or Compete chart a liar or human manipulation systems?
I don’t use Mahalo as search engine everyday tool.
Please add me on Mahalo when you signup:
http://www.mahalo.com/member/Sean+percival
Who uses mahalo anyway? Or a better question why? or even better, who has the time to use mahalo’s search?
If I am doing all my searching on google, which would l want to open another site and search from there?
I think that Mahalo is on to something. They are “gaining” traction. Frankly, it’s nice to see an underdog beat some of the odds.
i think a number of people are going to be surprised by what JC is able to pull with this business in 2008… the guy knows how to grow a business online, he’s a master trendspotter and mahalo, i don’t think, was ever intended to “replace” google as a pure play search engine… the way in which mahalo can provide you with relevant information is exploitative of a growing trend of peoples unwillingness to train google to find something so simple… let’s face it… google’s been gamed like digg… lol… gamegle…. mahalo and models like it are much more difficult to game and are far better at providing information and resources on topical matters as a whole… google should not be looking over their shoulder for mahalo, wikipedia should… mahalo never stood on a pedestal of anti-commerce so if it comes down to brass tacks: who’s got more money? hmmm….. so long jimbo, we hardly knew ye.
yongfolk
I think what Google is trying to do (see the link in the post) is where the space is headed, but in the mean time this is the second best, and only solution for a front page like this. To be fair to Mahalo, it’s a feature where as we’ve covered companies that ONLY provide this sort of service.
i think sean percival has a mahalo light in his house - whenever mahalo is said, the light goes off LOL
@allen
Just a dizzying array of Google Alerts and followed connections via twitter
And lets not forget who always seems to be “First!” on a lot of blog post I read! You!
Sean
Looks like another waste of time to me. I can see how it might have relevance to newbies (or the technically illiterate) but for me and my associates, I think not.
@sean - we gotta meet sometime - i will get you out of your mahalo trans - i think jason puts something in the coffee
@allen
Look forward to it! Heck with that, im going to convert you.
ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US ONE OF US
you can’t convert me sean - i know where jason grew up - he was no big baller, i was the big baller
i can see thru the code
Mahalo’s now half a step away from becoming a spammer’s paradise..
Duncan,
Good to see how accurate you guys are in covering other companies who ONLY offer aggregation.
MyLifeBrand has offered aggregation as a only a ‘feature’ NOT as their ONLY feature for a year now. The beauty of what MLB does is that it not only acts as your universal dashboard for all your networks, friends, content and services but it lets any company create a branded online community that provides access to those things to their members as well.
Now that is something useful.
- J
…and what does profile aggregation have to do with search…?
Totally confused. First, it’s a directory, masquerading as a search engine. Now, it’s a talk show (their video thing) and finally, it’s a social network aggregation tool.
Or…is it, “gee, the mainstream bloggers have been waxing philisophical about the concept of leveraging the disparate login anxiety among the myspace facebook bebo generation, if we synergize their accounts, we’ll get coverage!”
I don’t like Mahalo’s frame implementation. I prefer Spokeo’s implementation and setup much better.
Joel
where did I say that MLB only offers this service? I said other companies we’ve covered only offer this service. If you think that was targeted at MLB that’s your issue, not mine, and speaks volumes by itself.
You could also use Mobile O/X - http://MobileOX.com - for profile aggregation … and get a pretty cool “Personalized Domain” to go with it.
bad search engine + boring content + podcast with a hot chick + vanessa hudgens nude = trainwreck
On Mahalo’s home page it says:
Mahalo is the world’s first human-powered search engine.
I’m no expert, but isn’t that demonstrably and obviously untrue?
> I’m no expert, but isn’t that demonstrably and obviously untrue?
Of course. They’re lying. Cha-Cha and some others were there before them.
Mahalo’s just a giant Adsense ploy… pay no attention to them. They’re just trying to harvest and rank high for certain keywords. Once they get banned from search engines, they’ll go away.
Need to access all your social networks in one browser window? I have a solution for this, It’s called “tabs” and it can be used ultra-simply by pressing “Ctrl+N” in your Firefox Browser. 100% free and ad-free!
Hehehe.. sorry it was Ctrl-T (DAMN!)
Well that networking aggregation I was actually looking for.
JoePopular.com is an excellent aggregator of all your social networks. I have looked at Mahalo on and off for awhile, and would rather call a reference librarian.
how is it different from bookmarking the sites on my machine? or having a website with tabs + iframes?
Allen - Instead of questioning Mahalo, shouldn’t you be comparing this to the latest version of Flock (an apparent advertiser on your site)? From an objective standpoint, it’s a natural step for Mahalo.
I would have thought its pretty obvious what JC’s MO for Mahalo is - build it then flip it - for say $500M to one of the B-tier firms. Something about leopards and spots…