When we have a match for a person's need in the Mahalo database it's pure magic... we're only four months into Mahalo's alpha/beta and we're getting stories like this every day:So I asked Maholo for hotels in Paris and got this page: easy to use, straight-forward with a reasonable number of choices. In the "Moderate Hotels" category I found one that was in the right location: the Hotel Langlois - it looks nice, has a great rating on TripAdvisor. It even got free Wifi! I booked my room and was all set in less than 10 minutes. Wow!!Not sure how well Maholo works for other things. The idea of human powered search seems compelling, but keeping up with the Web is quite a task and I am not sure if humans are really up to it. Anyway, in this case Mahalo worked definitely as advertised. So, mahalo for the help, Mahalo! ;-)So, the only issue for our business is really how wide we can go (deep isn't an issue obviously since 99% of folks don't need more than 10-20 good links and our pages have 40-50 good links on average). Getting wide is our big challenge... and we're figuring it out every day. Have you got a Mahalo match story? Let me know and let us know how we can do more to save you time.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Blade Runner: The Final Cut was STUNNING last night. I've seen Blade Runner dozens of times on DVD/VHS, but nothing prepared me for the greatness that was The Final Cut. The film looks like it was made in 2007. The images were so stunning that it would seriously win an Oscar for best effects in 2008. The detail level of the images in the background was so great that I found myself drifting off of the characters and into the the details of the buildings, cars, and alleyways. If you only see one film this year go see Blade Runner on a digital projector.... right now it's only playing in LA and NYC, however to my friends in San Francisco I can tell you it is EASILY worth making the trip to the Landmark Theater (respek to Cubes for building this place) in Los Angeles where they are showing it ona SICK 4k projector. The guy who produced Blade Runner was there with an original jacket, as was the producer. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
The team at Mahalo is going to see Blade Runner: The Final Cut tonight. Blade Runner is one of my five favorite films of all time. I'm soooo excited! Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
From a recent interview... How do you see technological advances changing the workplace in the coming years?I don't know. That's the kind of question I think one only embarrasses oneself by trying to answer. But I know that the next problem we need to solve is, we have given people virtually unlimited access to data, to information; the next question is, can we give them better tools for making sense of that information?Google in a sense is a symbol of the solution to an old problem. We don't need more Googles; what we need is a way to prioritize and analyze and make sense of the information we have at our fingertips. And maybe those kinds of solutions aren't technological at all. I'm quite prepared for the possibility that the next revolution is not going to come from a machine; it's going to come from creating a more thoughtful work force and giving people the opportunity to be thoughtful.Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
I stayedout of the debate over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia last week since, as anyone who reads this blog knows, I don't like to mix it up with folks. I like to state my humble beliefs, meditate on the feedback I'm given, and use it to grow as a human being. Politics? I find it a wasted, shallow effort--debate class for adults. I'd rather try and change the world on a very small scale than talk about changing it on a big scale. However, that's just me... I'm from the "every grain of sand" school. Anyway, back to Mahmoud. When you give a person a lot of room to express themselves they typically do. In Mahmoud's case his disdain for homosexuals came out in statements that were so incongruous with basic human thinking--let along that of a world leader--that everyone was aware of the creature's true nature. There was nothing to debate.Saturday Night Live brilliantly pointed out what was clear in an instant: Mahmoud is really a closeted homosexual suffering under the tyranny of the regime he serves (not unlike our own Senator Larry Craig). [ Both men I'm sure claim their innocent. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt honey. ]In the Saturday Night Live skit "Iran So Far"--a skit that will be shown in history class 50 or 100 years from now--they show Mahmoud how happy his life could be if he just accepted who he was. The final lines of the song read:I know you say there's no gays in Iranbut you're in New York now babyit's time to stop hiding,and start livingSay what you will about the state of democracy in our country, what with wiretaps and secret prisons, but at least we have the ability to deftly take apart despots while dressing them in S&M gear and sultry evening wear. Now if only an SNL skit could get us off fossil fuel. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Oh... feature alert! The tech team made the autocomplete over at Mahalo super fast and starting from the first character. You obviously have to optimize these things and refine them. So, feels like a small thing but it's sort of big for users. It's super important for us to have this feature since we need to show off all the great content we have (since we don't have the long part of the tail!). Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
I'd like to start out by thanking everyone who responded to the official definition of Web 3.0 for their participation. I'd also like to thank TechMeme for being the easiest linkbaiting tool in the history of Web 2.0 (can it really be this easy?). However, I must remind folks that as we build out the infrastructure semantic social graph that people must adhere to the new standards that we've put in place. Also, please don't call them "rules" as they are semantic-based, not rule based.1. A number of the responses to the post were clearly unauthorized. All responses to blog posts originating off of your blog in Web 3.0--including comments--must require a token pre-approving them by both parties. The "double-opt in rebuttal technology" (aka dobt) that I've patented is now build into Wordpress so there really isn't an excuse to not get your pre-approved token before commenting. Also, we have an open source ping server (mayIinterjectOMATIC.org) that is being setup now. 2. A number of the responses and blog posts we're not cleared through the central Flameoff data cleanser. Filters showed that four comments were at 18% hostility or greater toward either the subject of this post or the topic in general. Two of the comments had remarkably high self-loathing percentages of 34% as well. The Flameoff data cleansing standard was set to tone down the volume level and increase intelligent conversation--remember it's for your benefit. We wouldn't insist you use it if it wouldn't make you a better person. On average the thread was 8% more charged (i.e. hostile) than the national average, if you exclude the outliers of a whopping 89% hostility rating in the Playstation vs. XBOX threads at digg and the 0% hostility rating on the Wikipedia mailing list "no it's my fault for not anticipating your not understanding what I could have said clearer. I'm so sorry LOL!" thread. Now that we've cleared up the rules... I mean semantic social graphing decision tree... of web 3.0 let's continue the decision in earnest and with our Flameoff filters on and opt-in rebuttal tokens passed. Comments are on (how could they not be?).Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
Some folks have been asking me for the clear definition of the term Web 3.0.Web 3.0 is defined as the creation of high-quality content and services produced by gifted individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform. Web 2.0 services are now the commoditized platform, not the final product. In a world where a social network, wiki, or social bookmarking service can be built for free and in an instant, what's next?Web 2.0 services like digg and YouTube evolve into Web 3.0 services with an additional layer of individual excellence and focus. As an example, funnyordie.com leverages all the standard YouTube Web 2.0 feature sets like syndication and social networking, while adding a layer of talent and trust to them. A version of digg where experts check the validity of claims, corrected errors, and restated headlines to be more accurate would be the Web 3.0 version. However, I'm not sure if the digg community will embrace that any time soon. Wikipedia, considered a Web 1.5 service, is experiencing the start of the Web 3.0 movement by locking pages down as they reach completion, and (at least in their German version) requiring edits to flow through trusted experts. Also of note, is what Web 3.0 leaves behind. Web 3.0 throttles the "wisdom of the crowds" from turning into the "madness of the mobs" we've seen all to often, by balancing it with a respect of experts. Web 3.0 leaves behind the cowardly anonymous contributors and the selfish blackhat SEOs that have polluted and diminished so many communities. Web 3.0 is a return to what was great about media and technology before Web 2.0: recognizing talent and expertise, the ownership of ones words, and fairness. It's time to evolve, shall we?[ Note: Make sure you read the update on the unauthorized comments. I also added quotes around official since some folks actually thought that I had the power to lay down the official definition of what our industry will be doing over the next 10 years--really. :-) ] Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments
