Human-powered search engine launched

31 May 2007

A Santa Monica-based entrepreneur has launched a new search engine which is powered by humans.

The new service, which has been named Mahalo after the Hawaiian word for 'thank you', is powered by 40 employees who collate relevant links for popular search queries.

Currently in Alpha, the venture is being backed by Sequoia Capital, which also supplied venture capital for Google.

Founder Jason Calacanis explained: "Google's mission is to index the world's information; our mission is to curate that wonderful index.

"It's my belief that humans can play a significant role in the development of search results and we're going to try to figure out exactly what that role is over the next couple of years."

The company hopes that some 10,000 results pages, which will integrate features such as RSS news feeds and YouTube videos, will have been created by the end of the year.

Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha said that the investors are "thrilled" with the results so far, adding: "We look forward to user feedback so we can continue to improve the service."

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