Mahalo.com was a web directory (or human search engine) and Internet-based knowledge exchange (Question-and-answer website) launched in May 2007 by Jason Calacanis.
Mahalo.com contracted human editors to review websites and write search engine results pages that include text listings, as well as other media, such as photos and video.
A key difference was that Mahalo Answers allowed questioners to give a monetary reward (called a "tip") to the user who provided the most helpful response.
[10][11] Other disclosed investors include Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and AOL chairman Ted Leonsis[12] Jason Calacanis said in 2008 that he has enough funding to run Mahalo for four or five years without making a profit.
[13] On March 1, 2011, Calacanis and company president, Jason Rapp, announced via email that the recent changes in the Google search algorithm had significantly reduced traffic, resulting in the need to lay off about 10% of Mahalo employees.