Mahalo and Credibility

I’ve come to rely on Mahalo for those times when Google spits back too many results for me to filter. Mahalo does a great job in bringing the most relevant results to the top of the page. I also like how they keep the presentation to a minimum. It’s clean and easy to navigate.

But I noticed one major problem today: The guides that create the pages cannot be informed about every topic, and some topics will require a person who really knows the product, service or brand to understand what others will be looking for and expect in a results page.

I’ll give you an example: Find the Mahalo page for the BMW 3 Series. Granted this is a product that has many rabid fans and BMW owners are a demanding bunch. They not only understand the history and culture surrounding the car, but they will be well-versed in its competitors and community. In a nutshell, they will know more about the car than a guide at Mahalo who has never owned a BMW and is creating the page based on Google search results.

I spent less than 15 seconds looking over the Mahalo page for the 3 series and could tell you it was created by someone who doesn’t own a BMW or knows much about them. And that’s a problem, because I expect this page to have been created by someone who knows MORE (or at least as much) about the BMW 3 series than myself. Corvette, 911, GTI, WRX, S4 and a host of other enthusiast car owners will expect the same.

Under the section “BMW 3 Series Competitors” the guide has listed the Lexus ES at the top followed by the Mercedes Benz C-Class and Audi A4. When I saw this, the page lost all credibility. The ES is not a competitor to the 3 Series. But the Lexus IS 250/350 is. The first competitor that comes to mind is left off the list: The Infinity G35/G37 which isn’t listed on Mahalo yet.

Mahalo’s results are still better than a basic Google search. But I expect more. I’m sure it will improve over time. Mahalo has a “recommend a link” feature that, if utilized, will help shore up the results. I created a Squidoo lens that I feel is a lot more in tune with what a 3 series owner or researcher would be after but it took 10+ hours to create.  Some of what I have under the 3 Series Basics should be on Mahalo’s Top 7. Mahalo’s top 7 links to “Car Domain” and some guy named Danny’s tricked out 3 series. Huh? This is just sloppy work.

I will still use Mahalo, but will be watching to see if the guides really do implement user feedback into the pages. Each Mahalo page needs to be more than what anyone could slap together in an hour. Jason Calacanis and his team have been open to suggestions so I have hope this will be improved. I’ll even volunteer to update the 3 Series page for free. 🙂