Try Twitter Instead of Mahalo for People-Powered Search
While Jason Calacanis’ alpha Mahalo service has garnered attention for its human-powered approach to search, you might want to try Twitter instead. Gather some of your favorite people together and then, when you need specialized information or advice, ask them. You’ll be amazed what great results you can get.
For example, one of my friends needed some advice yesterday. He wanted to know how to set freelance consulting rates. Did he Google? Or Ask Metafilter? No, he used Twitter to do a people-powered search. He searched through his social network for the answer to his question.
My friend received advice that was both trustworthy and targeted. The advice was trustworthy because it came from people he knew. It was targeted because those people know him too — so they could take his particular situation into account when they provided tips and resources.
If you search on Google for information about setting freelance rates, you’d get some blog articles and some calculators, but how do you know what to trust? And even with Google’s personalized search, you’re not going to get information that knows as much about your situation as your friends and colleagues.
Mahalo does much worse than Google. It doesn’t have any results yet for “freelance consulting rates.” Granted, it’s still alpha, but this demonstrates a general problem with the approach: it can’t tap into human intelligence immediately like Twitter can.
Twitter social search would also work for questions like, “what’s a good restaurant in Boston to take a potential client to?” or “why is there a funky indentation in my blog theme?” People can easily parse these questions and ignore them if they have no idea. Or they can respond if they happen to be paying attention and have the time and inclination. Bonus: as questions get answered, social connections are created and deepened.
You wouldn’t want to saturate your Twitter network with every little search you do; Google and other search engines work fine in most cases. (And note that Google, in fact, embeds human intelligence in its search algorithms by considering links created by people). But some questions really need to be answered by your own social network, with technology just a means of connection.
Do you use Twitter for social search? What kind of questions have you gotten answered that way?
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I use Twitter for this all the time. Most recently I used it to ask if anyone had seen a LendingTree type site for home owner insurance. When no one had they started making recommendations to me on what companies to use with and I ended up signing up with a company that I had NEVER heard of before I had several close friends on Twitter recommend them.
C.C.: Yes, using Twitter this way is surprisingly powerful, I’ve found. You just have no idea what your friends know unless you ask… and Twitter is lightweight enough that you can ask without disrupting everyone. I would never email or IM some of the questions I ask.
The key to querying Google about things like “freelance consulting rates” is to avoid the term itself and look specifically for phrases people used by people who write about such things. Back when I was freelancing, I got a feel for the market by using wildcards in phrases coupled with related industry keywords, for example: “i charge * per hour” “web design”. All this while using some judgment to filter the good info from the bad, of course. I still think it’s a good way to passively scope out info, but of course actively querying a trusted community is better.
Good tip, Paulo, thanks. And I should have pointed out that asking a question on Twitter PLUS querying Google PLUS checking other information sources is a good way to come up with a really rich answer.
Great tip… I use Pownce and Twitter all the time to ask for tips and advice. I’d also recommend Facebook Groups and LinkedIn Answers for this kind of service.
I’ve gotten tons of good answers to questions I’ve asked there. Everything from “Point me to your best online resources for creating a good ‘pitch’,” to “Are there any other presidential candidates on Twitter besides Edwards and Obama?” (answer from DougH: @fredthompson is here and pretty active. Doing it right IMO – staff tweets are marked as such – and he does his own occasionally”)
Twitter is like this amazing pool of knowledge, just waiting to be tapped.
Agreed – my Twitter friend list already contains people who I trust and find interesting, so it makes sense to ask them certain questions. Yesterday I posed a query about a Facebook app and got fast, relevant answers.
I use this software called 8hands- It’s a profile aggregator.
anyway, besides its other great features, it has a super cool tag line-
Whenever you change it, your twitter updates accordingly.
Tell me what I’m missing b/c this sounds like BS to me. Maybe I don’t “get” Twitter. Question: What advantage does Twitter offer to the user that wants to ask his or her friends a question? Couldn’t you could have accomplished the same end result by sending an instant message to mulitple friends? Trillian has a feature that allows you to define groups for your contacts; it also allows you to send one message to any given group you’ve defined. What is so powerful about Twitter’s technology in this simple scenario (posing a question to friends)? The power seems to reside within the network of friends and not in whatever condiut one chooses to send the question. Christ, is Twitter paying for fluff articles like this? GRRR ;-)
Chris: I wouldn’t email or IM a bunch of my friends with a question or a wondering. Twitter is much more lightweight, a totally different model than either of those. It lends itself to use as a social search engine while IM and email don’t.
It’s something you have to experience though… just thinking about it isn’t going to allow you to “get it.”
Hi Anne, Thanks, I will try Twitter. I apologize for the ire in my question and nasty closing sentence.
I *live* by Twitter as a recommendation tool. I use it like the Matrix. The OTHER Chris might have to use it a little longer, develop a better friend base, and hone his questions.
Just today, I was having a lingering trouble with my blog. My provider said, “call WordPress.” Well, um, WordPress doesn’t exactly take calls. So, I asked Twitter. I had FOUR people help me within minutes, plus about 40 other pieces of advice.
And that freelance rates question? I bet that led to some great conversations with intelligent and supportive people.
Twitter, versus Google, is a great way to get the human back into answers that might need more than a boolean answer.
And Jason Calacanis still has a great product, because one thing that’s true: Mahalo’s information stays up there. Twitter is a stream. If you miss it, or of someone’s not around who can answer, it’s work to paddle back up the stream.
Great post, Anne!
Anne, Yes, I’ve been using Twitter like this all the time for questions both large and small. Back in May, I even used Twitter (and Facebook) to help me quickly find a pair of boots – and wrote it up here: http://www.disruptiveconversations.com/2007/05/of_cowboy_boots.html
Like you said, the key is that it is a trusted circle of people that you follow and come to know. Very cool stuff – and VERY useful!
Dan
Just ask Dave Winer he has all the answers and more.
This is just the microblogging version of the LazyWeb.
hmmmm, i find this quite fascinating and clever. Great job and good luck with it all
I found your blog via Google while searching for and your post regarding Web Worker Daily looks very interesting for me
Most stupid idea I have heard: to use the useless Tweeter for serching!
The poster must either have been paid by Tweeter or is one of Tweeter investors that is hyping this useless company.
I mean how much more stupid and desperate can you be to suggest such an idea!
So 1st I have to gather my friends around Tweeter and then they are to answer my questions!! WOW – simply beyond stupid.
Now, do you want a search engine that is actually powered by the People, then use Anoox. It is the original and the True “People Powered seach engine”.
Agree with last poster totally.
But actually anoox is the best search engine not just because it is powered by the people, that is truely by YOU and me. Anoox is the better search engine for these reasons too:
1- Anoox shares its Ad revenues with people who make anoox their preferred search engine. Althouhg u dont have to opt for this to use Anoox.
2- Anoox is operated on a not-for-proft basis so cost of Advertising is much lower on anoox compared to Xahoo or Google
3- And get this: if Anoox makes any profits, they give away.
And YOU and me can suggest who they should give 50% of their profit away too, and the oother 50% they are giving to support Universal Health care for American people.
Anoox simple ROCKS :)
Hi Jeffrey, Peter or whatever your name is. We really do appreciate your enthusiasm for your service, if not the flames.
Next time, try using different IPs if you want to make it look like your comment is coming from different people.
Hi there, Nice blog posting about Web Worker Daily. I would have to agree with you on this one. I am going to look more into . This Monday I have time.
Hi! Swiss banker here. Nice blog posting about Web Worker Daily. I would have to agree with you on this one. I am going to look more into . This Tuesday I have time.
Hi, I came across your blog posting after searching for and your post on Web Worker Daily makes an interesting read. Thanks for sharing. I will research more next Tuesday when I have the day off.
Hi there, Very nice place you have here. Youve done a good job & awesome blog on tter Instead of Mahalo for People-Powered Search « Web Worker Daily!
Twitter has been awesome, connecting me to new friend and increasing traffic to my blog through a wordpress plugin that syncs my blog up with my twitter posts. It is so much easier to come up with twitter posts each day rather than full blown blog posts. Through out the day, I post random ideas and thoughts, and then they get summarized on my blog along with my regular posts.
Kevin
I haven’t gotten much done recently, but oh well. Shrug. I haven’t been up to much. Pfft.
Hey this is a great article on web worker daily. I totally agree with you on the points in your article. Thanks for the writeup! ~Jason
I find twitter is also just a great way of not only asking informational questions – but also polling people and seeing what the general population thinks on a particular subject.
This is a great way to write blog posts when you’re stumped for ideas.. It’s also just a fun thing to do – ask and answer questions.