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FoxMarks to Power Search Engine, kill Mahalo
TechCrunch reports that Mitch Kapor (of Lotus 1-2-3 fame) is building out his bookmark synchronization service Foxmarks into a search engine, using meta-data entered by users to power search results. Foxmarks counts 20 million unique URL’s in its human-powered index.
Del.icio.us should have been used by Yahoo! to do this the day after they were acquired. I suggested something similar in an earlier discussion about how Google’s AdSense could better serve ads. Point being: Yahoo is again failing to innovate or capitalize on their assets. They truly are the death by shareholder standard bearer.
Is Foxmarks a Google killer? Probably not. But: they have a growing asset with their human powered index, and the core bookmark-syncing system provides a value-added vector for spreading the tool and the brand. A flurry of press coverage could provide it with the impetus it needs to grab a piece of the search pie.
Is Foxmarks a Mahalo killer? Yes. Search engines fall on a continuum of totally alogorithmic (Google) and totally human (DMOZ, Mahalo). Foxmarks sits in the middle, occupying what I think is the sweet spot - it blends the volume handling of the algorithm with the data categorization of humans, adds in aggregation to increase credibility and smooth outrider results, and bundles it all together.
Of course, all of this discussion is academic. I haven’t seen Foxmarks in action, as I wasn’t at Foo Camp.
algorithm, calacanis, foxmarks, google, mahalo, search seoIf you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
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2 Responses to “FoxMarks to Power Search Engine, kill Mahalo”
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Rod: I spent time with Mitch six months ago and this weekend going over Foxmarks. Foxmark’s finds great stuff, but it won’t “kill” Mahalo just like Mahalo won’t kill “Google.”
Frankly, the whole “X will kill Y” concept is very simple minded (not saying you’re simple minded… I know you are justs linkbaiting :-).
The future of search is clearly going to be man+machine and if Foxmarks makes a good product we will have our guides cross-reference our pages with Foxmarks and make sure we have the best of what they have.
So, I see it as complimentary the same way I look at digg or Stumbleupon–both of which are amazing at discovery search.
all the best,
Jason
Hah! Right on - the sad truth is that I am simple-minded, which keeps me cheerful if nothing else.
Anyway - I agree with what you’re saying: that one of Mahalo’s greatest strengths is that its “algorithm” is powered by human minds… and thus has the borg-like capacity to assimilate search advances made elsewhere.
Resistance is futile!
Anyway - thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts.
Regards,
-R