Mahalo’s Answer to Yahoo Answers? Cold Hard Cash
I wonder where Jason Calacanis and Mahalo figured out this scheme? If you want something done, and done better than a competitor, it may be a good idea to offer people money. Getting paid for doing a job?
Nothing in the world makes more sense. Of course, Microsoft pays users to shop on its search engine. That in itself is not “doing” a job, unless using Live Search is now considered laborious.
Mahalo Answers has a system that will let users pay other users to answer their questions well, while Mahalo skims 25% of the funds thrown into the kitty. Outsourcing to the masses is nothing new–Google tried something similar with Google Answers. But it didn’t quite work.
What is different about Mahalo answers? For one thing, the question-askers are ranked on whether or not they actually pay out, so users can’t just ask a tough question, get a ton of answers, and then “dine ‘n’ dash,” so to speak.
This tipping procedure will make it so the top answers are ranked according to how the well the questioner thought it was answered, unlike Yahoo Answers, which simply shows the latest answer.
Those looking to make some dough on Mahalo Answers would be well served to check out Mahalo Answers Spy. New questions will pop up periodically and users can pounce to be the first one to answer a question.
Will it work for Mahalo? One thing is for sure: plenty of people will want to get on and answer questions. Will there be _too_ many? Will there be enough question-askers to keep the legion satisfied? I personally have no idea, but it’s pretty interesting.
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