Mahalo Gets the Message

Over the summer, I posted an entry here concerning Jason Calacanis's new humanized search engine, Mahalo. At the time, I pointed to questions about how useful such a service might be, where human guides attempted to make sense out of at least some of the overwhelming amount of information on the Internet.

Over at Straight Up Search, a poster named Andrew put up a review of Mahalo on October 16, based on his search for a new Radiohead album. Andrew didn't think much of the service, and he said so.

But here's where the story takes a twist.

Just a few hours later, the guide from Mahalo posted a comment on Andrew's review at Straight Up Search. The guide, Len Harris, explained why the information had appeared as it did, acknowledged the difficulties, and made some immediate changes to the Mahalo layout "to make things more clear."

And Andrew responded to that comment, thanking Len and noting the improvements made in response to his original complaint.

Seems to me that Mahalo just made itself some new friends. That's incredible response. It's a perfect example of what I've been talking about here when I talk about the need for a conversation between a brand - in this case, Mahalo - and its customers - Andrew. That's what Web 2.0 (or later) is all about. Bravo to all involved. And, as Andrew now acknowledges, maybe there is something to be said for human intervention in the search process...

(Hat tip: MediaPost's Search Insider newsletter)