the IT blog

When Scoble feels compelled to wear a shirt and part his hair: Interview with inventor of the Web

Labels: interview, Robert Scoble, Tim Berners-Lee

Dig that Young Manhattanite/Krucoff: 1.3 million New Yorkers live in homes without enough food to eat: New York City Coalition Against Hunger
And you're still chopping them up. Prepare some meals!
[Thanks Giving Irony]

Labels: Krucoff, New York City Coalition Against Hunger, Young Manhattanite

Say what you may, but Calacanis is really THE community CEO. After our post on some Mahalo flaws, Jason did not hesitate to write up a lenghty comment, even though it was Sunday and even conceding a couple of mistakes. Credit where credit is due, so here the reprint of his comment - lifted from the Haloscan abyss:

Thanks for the feedback.

The PDF page could be a little better, and as you point out we're starting to get feedback from the audience when we miss obvious/good things.

We're finding if we get a page to 70/80% of perfection the public will help us get it the rest of the way there. That's why we have the process.

In terms of folks putting in unrelated stuff that happens all the time. Folks don't understand that they are recommending URLs for the specific page, they think they are submitting ones for the entire site. We're fixing that.

Also, we're looking into why the person who manages my SERP didn't get emails when those were posted (might be a spam filter type thing). We try to deal with incoming links as they happen (the guide get email alerts).

RE: AJ's attempt at humor, well, that was a mistake. Human's make them. However, if you compare our PDF page to Google's it's certainly a MUCH better page.

Bottom line: we're working really hard and learning a lot. We're moving about 10x faster than I thought we would. We've already got over 20,000 pages and we're adding 1,000 a week. We might be able to increase that, and if we do we're on track to have as many pages as Wikipedia in a couple of years.

When we reach scale that's when folks will start to get the value. Right now, if you're a top 1% of the market type person we're not the best solution, but for someone who is part of the mass audience (the other 90%+) we're really helpful.

People who are gifted in technology sometimes have a hard time understanding why people want basic things. My time at AOL helped me understand the mass audience, and that's who we're building for.

You know there are tens of millions of folks that don't know the difference between their browser's URL bar and their search box right? You would be very surprised if you sat in on some of the 75 hours of user testing we've done so far this year.

I've learned a LOT... most of all that people are confused and need really simple products to get them to the really good information that is hidden amongst all the garbage on the web.

all the best, and thanks for checking us out every 2-3 weeks. I think we'll be ready for someone on your level in another year.

best j

Even Mahalo guide AJ's profile has been "updated". And regarding those spam links: whether there really is a spam filter issue for internal emails, i.e. internal communications problem, or a structural problem with keeping Mahalo up to date remains to be seen - well, let's just leave it at that.

Related: The Mahalo-Wikipedia-Google love triangle [fluidinfo]

Labels: Jason Calacanis, Mahalo

After uncovering flaws in the Mahalo system recently, we have to return to the subject of Mahalo once again. Btw: It is certainly commendable that they did a serp on pdf upon our request, alas it fails to impress; we'd much rather have a resourceful serp. A link to download.com is underwhelming. Foxit reader, anyone? No link to to PDFonline.com? No "curated" suggestion for conversion software? Etc.
However, we'd like to acknowledge the effort of Guide AJ whose sign off phrase on his profile goes: "There's nothing funnier than someone else's pain." Oh yes, we couldn't think of anything funnier than that, pfffff! We're sure it's a great experience for all the Mahalo guides to work with someone who indulges in "someone else's pain".

But to the point of this post:

Submitted links for the boss's, i.e. Jason Calacanis - also known as the community CEO, very own serp include highly relevant links to some obscure hindi film blog and a Frontpage designed website of an unknown imaging consultant. Those links have been lurking there since September 17, or June 08 respectively, and not been dumped to the blocked section. So much for "up to date and spam-free".

Labels: Jason Calacanis, Mahalo

interesting: if you search for MahaloToDo on Google Krucoff's Young Manhattanite comes first, second in is Calacanis's own blog. Does that mean Young Manhattanite ist more important than Calacanis??

MahaloToDo: would you do a serp on pdf, please?

Labels: Mahalo, MahaloToDo

Serious Mahalo flaw, even though Jason Calacanis claimed that keeping up to date would not be a problem: we just went through some artists' serps on Mahalo, and some of them link to videos on youtube in their top picks. More often than not you get an error message on youtube, like "This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by WARNER MUSIC GROUP". It is even more annoying when the video has a thumbs up recommendation by some Mahalo editor.
Incidents like these are bound to happen more and more on Mahalo serps, not just with youtube videos, since their editors will be overwhelmed.
Clearly, Jason's team will not be able to keep up with the flow!

Labels: Jason Calacanis, Mahalo

Obvious emergency picture comment to 99(Emeritus)'s (aka Miss Representation) full on comeback post on YM.
Anyone still reading Unbeige?

Labels: 99, Curbed, Krucoff, Lockhart Steele, Miss Representation, Unbeige, Young Manhattanite

How Calacanis likes a good night out in NYC!

Labels: Jason Calacanis, Nick Denton, NYC