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Mahalo is a social networking site that I haven’t really messed with outside of signing up for it. I’ve heard some good things about it, and I know that a few people on Twitter use it, but that’s about all I know.

Review:

Every few days I get a message that someone else on there thinks I’m interesting and wants an easy way to stay up to date with the links I recommend. I find these rather funny since I haven’t recommended any links yet. I suspect, but don’t know for sure, that there is probably a “welcoming” group, like I’ve seen at some other sites. It actually does help with one area that SU is sometimes weak in, making new people feel welcome and wanted.

Since I used the link from the friend request to sign in, their page is the first that opens. It’s easy to see how to add someone as a friend, the left panel shows their avatar, with the link to “Add As Friend” directly underneath. Very nice.

Profile:

Now let’s check out my profile and see what to do next. The profile button is on the top right, the same place it is with several other sites, a trend I appreciate, since it means I don’t have to search just to get to my own page. The link to my page is fairly simple, http://www.mahalo.com/member/Teeg. I like sites that give subdomains the best (ie http://teeg.stumbleupon.com), since it’s easier to remember, but I won’t fuss (much) about any that try to make their links simple to use.

I’m going to start by changing my profile picture. Although the flower is nice, if I start using a site, I prefer to show some type of more personal avatar. If someone doesn’t have an avatar, I usually figure that they aren’t really active on the site. Plus, if I use the same (or a similar) avatar on several sites, it shows people that it’s probably the same person at all of them. I think I’ll put up my Pooh with Peas avatar for right now. If you haven’t heard about the PEA movement for breast cancer, I really suggest you check out Boobs on Ice and the Frozen Pea Fund. I love the fact that just by donating the price of a couple bags of frozen peas, you can help find a cure for breast cancer. To me, that’s incredible!

Hmm, I’m having a problem getting the new avatar to load. Doesn’t look like they have any special requirements, the picture is a jpg and small enough for twitter, so should work on here. Cleared my cache and it’s still not working. Odd. Well, it says the image is uploaded successfully, so I’ll restart the computer and check back later. Hopefully no one else will have a problem getting their avatar to show.

What is Mahalo:

Before I start figuring how to use Mahalo, I’d really like to know what its purpose is, what distinguishes it from any other site. Hmm, no “About us” link on my page, so I’ll check the Mahalo.com link. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Ahh ha, finally! At the very bottom of the page, “What is Mahalo?”

Mahalo is a human-powered search engine that creates organized, comprehensive, and spam free search results for the most popular search terms. Our search results only include great links.

Now I’m definitely interested! Time to figure out how to use it.

Scrolling further down the FAQ page, I come to this question, “How do I recommend links to Mahalo?”

You can recommend high-quality links to any search term on Mahalo, either by using Mahalo Follow or by clicking on the green plus sign under the User Recommended Links section. Note: you must have a Mahalo account to recommend links.

Mahalo Follow is a toolbar which I was hoping to avoid loading (toolbars have the potential to used as spyware, so I’m always cautious about adding a new one, plus it requires restarting Firefox). Guess I’ll load it and only run it when I’m wanting to add something to the site. Back in a few minutes. Wonder if this will fix my avatar too?

Okay, loaded the toolbar. It also added a sidebar search. Turning it off for now.

Now to finish exploring the site. Still no picture. I may have to seek help for that. Cache clears whenever I restart Firefox, so I should definitely be seeing the new picture by now.

Page:

In the middle of my profile page are three tabs. “My Recommended Links” is empty for now, since I haven’t tried recommending anything yet. “Friends’ Recommended Links” shows (all?) recommendations from friends. I’m guessing it probably is all, since there’s 26 pages of with 15 suggestions per page. I see I can also add a vote to the recommendation. I don’t see a list anywhere of the sites with the most recommendations. Not sure if I’ve missed it or it’s not available.

Toolbar:

Studying the toolbar. The Mahalo icon is actually a drop down menu. Options include going to the main Mahalo page, turning the sidebar on and off (nice!) and preferences. Preferences doesn’t have a lot of options, I was hoping for a way to personalize my toolbar and get rid of some of the text. Oh well.

Next is the search area, nice to know I don’t have to use the sidebar for searches. Random sounds interesting, but clicking the dropdown arrow just brings up the word loading…, clicked that too, and it loaded my SU page. Weird. Okay, clicking the word “Random” works. It brought up information on ALS. Trying again…a page on Jacques de Molay. I like the guide note at the side, especially since I had no idea who he was.

The drop down arrow for Directory also goes to a Loading… message. Clicking the word “Directory” goes to loading too. I wouldn’t mind it if they actually loaded a new page, but they don’t seem to do anything yet. Am I missing something?

Would you recommend… reinforcing the idea that Mahalo is like StumbleUpon turned into a search. Critique, it seems too wordy. Recommend? Yes, No, Maybe would accomplish the same thing easier.

Search:

Trying a search for StumbleUpon. I like the way the search is broken down. Top 7, New, Tips & Tricks, Tools & Hacks, Blogs and Wikis are the categories. Hmm, SU Comments isn’t mentioned. Tempted to suggest it, but I’ll wait and see what the rules are for suggesting your own sites.

The “Try also:” link leads to an article on using StumbleUpon. That’s a little confusing, I was wondering why there was a separate search on “How to Use StumbleUpon Like a Pro.”

Added a new search term. First I had to confirm my e-mail, which I’d somehow failed to do. Interesting that you can set up an account and add friends without doing that.

Puzzle Pirates wasn’t listed, so I added it. Right now it shows up on the page as a User Recommended Link and shows on my profile page as a link I’ve recommended. I wonder how long it takes for a site to be moved from user recommended to a regular search term? But at least I don’t have an empty page anymore!

Final Sidebar Comment:

I had to add this last bit. I was just looking for a friend on twitter and searched their name. The Mahalo sidebar popped up with Twitter Tips. Everything from phone codes to commands to resources. Interesting.

Conclusion:

I like the main idea behind Mahalo, a human powered search engine sounds intriguing. There are quite a few sites around now where you recommended pages on the web, but this is the only one I know of that creates a web search out of them. SU has a search, but I’ve often found myself disappointed with it, especially when I’m looking for other stumblers. It will be interesting to see how Mahalo works out over time, especially as they gain in popularity. Is quantity going to push out the quality standards, or will quality rule at the cost of speed (getting a link listed as a real link instead of just user recommended).

I think their toolbar needs some work to be really useful. I like the Random option, but can’t imagine using it very much. Although the search is handy, Mahalo also gave me the option to add it to my drop down search list, so I don’t have to have it on the toolbar. I’m still not sure what the directory is supposed to do. Overall, I think they could get by with the sidebar download and a “Recommend?” Bookmark button which would be self-explanatory and more likely to stay in sight on most people’s toolbar.

The searches themselves are interesting and as more people add pages, could grow to be very useful.

Quick Hints:

1) Don’t forget to confirm your e-mail after you register if you plan to add sites.

2) It’s very simple to add a friend. Simply click the “Add as Friend” link underneath their avatar.

3) Recommending a new site brings up a pop-up box for you to put information about the site and in 100 characters tell why you love the link.

4) If you like to write, you can actually get paid for writing good reviews. Check out the Greenhouse.

5) For those that care, there are three different leaderboards…Those with the most friends/fans, recommended links, and accepted links.

6) The sidebar with tips is a neat feature. It will be interesting to see how it works at other sites.

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 @ 1:03 pm 10 Minutes, Beginner, social networks
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