(via TechCrunch) Mahalo is another tailored-result search engine (like ChaCha which I’ve mentioned on this blog before). Today I read that Mahalo is looking for Part Time Guides(PTG) to help build tailored result pages (part of their “Greenhouse” project).
PTG’s are paid $10-15 if Mahalo buys their tailored result page and, in addition to creating a customized results page, Guides can flag links with various Mahalo icons for “Guide’s Choice,” “What is” (items that may be new to the searcher) or even “Warning” flags for sites that might be malicious.
Initially, I jumped on this as a great opportunity for librarians to help web-searchers find excellent results, but I’m not certain that $10-15 is appropriate compensation. Guides are credited with the creation of pages, but perhaps this would be a better project for a library system to undertake. The system could select pages their community might have an interest in, and then turn the pages over to their librarians to create the content. I’m very interested in Mahalo’s wiki-fied approach to web searching.
What do you think? Good idea or bad?
Update: I just read Jason Griffey’s take on Mahalo… and learned for the first time about the Librarian’s Internet Index. I will never cease to be amazed at the number of things I have yet to learn. Hey, anyone know about a Guide to Libraries and the Internet or a Guide to Library Marketing/Library 2.0 that I could pick up somewhere?
