In terms of Mahalo’s launch rubbing you the wrong way, well, that’s all in your mind. We did create the model of using a Wiki to make a directory that users a search metaphor…. as such I think we’re the first human-based search engine. Bessed is more of a blog in my mind…. and i do think that is an interesting approach. In fact, I thought about using a blog to do what we’re doing. It does have advantages.

in terms of the press what am I supposed to say when we launch: “Mahalo is a human powered search engine and I’d like to stop for a moment and list the 50 other folks out there who have had similar ideas before.” When folks ask you about Bessed do you stop them and say “let me tell you about Mahalo and Wikia.” Journalists know the history of this and they all made the connection to things like DMOZ and Yahoo’s directory which have… umm…. 10 years on Bessed and Mahalo. This is not a new idea, it’s just new people going after it with new process.

Mahalo is not your competition… your competition is yourself. How big can Bessed get? How many features can it have? That’s how I would think if i was you.

In terms of who’s right about where help is needed in the long tail I’ll take what 50-75 folks in labs did (and said) over anyone’s gut… but who knows, maybe you’re right and the people we tested are all wrong. It is possible.

Good luck with it… I think you’re off to a solid start. See you at the finish line.

bessed,

j

I think the Mahalo launch is what rubbed the wrong way from our perspective—as if Mahalo had created a new model, which you yourself admit you did not.

While our platforms may be different, Mahalo’s strategy is much the same as Bessed—use humans to find the best sites, sifting out the spam. You are right; there are differences—we write short site descriptions with our links and using blog software allows for direct user commenting. But you are doing something similar; the reason Bessed was included in the NYT article is because Randy Goss saw the many similarities—and for that we owe you thanks. Mahalo has actually raised our profile.

As for which searches need the human touch more, I guess we’ll agree to disagree. Whatever your labs tell you, we don’t believe that’s where the greatest user frustration lies. If you’ve got more extensive market research on your side, then it may play out as you suggest. For now, I’m skeptical.

Thanks for your comment. As I said, Mahalo has raised our profile, and your own high profile keeps eyes (and writers’ pens/keyboards) focused on the human search space. From our perspective those can only be good things.

I wouldn’t say Mahalo is a carbon copy of Bessed at all. You guys are a blog and we’re doing a search metaphor (backed up by a Wiki). Also, we do sections, guide notes, fast facts, etc. and Bessed does site reviews (which are cool). They coulnd’t look and feel more different in my mind.

Regarding who came up with the idea first I think you have to give the hat-tip to Scott Kurnit at About.com for his first version (the mining company).

Regardless, every good idea has 3-4 people go after it at a time…. seems like ChaCha, Wikia, Bessed, and a number of others see the connection between humans and search, and even Google has been promoting their human touch. So, none of us own the idea.

One correction: In terms of the long-tail we’re doing in a very big way. In the press I do talk about the fat tail of search a lot, but if you look at the 500+ terms we’re doing each week (with 40-50 highquality links on average) they are spread across the tail. So, I’m not thinking that we have to stay at the top of the tail.

Also, our research (in the form of over 50 hours of user labs) says you are very, very wrong about users being happy about the popular searches. In fact, it was the EXACT opposite… the most popular searches were the ones with the MOST spam (makes sense since SEOs make the most money when they get listed on a top search term).

Go do a search for travel, health, or a popular product and you will see that those results are the most screwed up.

In fact, you’ve got it backwards: the long-tail stuff is where Google does REALLY WELL because the blackhat SEOs don’t care about those searches. I’d recommend that you do some research labs where you watch folks actually search… it was very eye opening for me.

So, fear not… we are doing the long tail too.

Mahalo for the feedback and “bessed” of luck!

Jason