On Calacanis, Mahalo & StumbleUpon

2.06.07

Did you know a panel of experts have determined that these are the 7 best sites on organic food?

  1. Wikipedia: Organic food
  2. Organic Consumers Association
  3. United States Department of Agriculture: Organic Certification
  4. How Stuff Works: How Organic Food Works
  5. Organic Gardening
  6. Wikipedia: Organic farming
  7. Organic Food Directory: Local Harvest

Today with Mahalo‘s launch, their editors have determined that these are the pages that are most authoritative and relevant to the topic. But are they? Mahalo goes on to break down Organic Food into these Categories

  • Organic Food News and Articles
  • Organic Products
  • Organic Food Blogs, Forums, and Fun Stuff
  • Pro-Organic Groups and Information
  • Anti-Organic Groups and Information
  • Organic Food Books and Films
  • Buying Organic Food Online
  • Related Searches

Calacanis betting on editorial control again? Really? Netscape cannot be called a disaster but the editorial control exerted on the site appeals to an audience even more narrow than the readers of digg. In the face of Everything is Miscellaneous and The Long Tail this is a major gamble against the philosophy of some of the thought leaders of our industry.

In so many ways I see this as an IA challenge. That is why I think Mahalo is such an interesting entry in this market. Most searches result in us not going beyond the top of the first SERP, but I have to think it’s because we refine our searches more to the nuances we are looking for at that moment. Maybe Mahalo would reveal the right results for my first organic foods search, but as my knowledge and interests deepen within organic food, I need much more narrow answers. With Calacanis’ goal of 10,000 pages, I see a site that is pop in it’s worst sense. One could only

What’s most telling is the way Wikipedia pages often rank at the top of Mahalo’s top ten. Mahalo, with editorially controlled search results, is the doppledanger to Wikipedia’s distributed contributions.

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