Today’s session with Jason Calacanis was a bit surprising. Jason started off by addressing his past comments about search engine optimization at previous SES events. In short, Jason admitted that his “SEO is BS” statement was never meant to be a position statement, and was just an offhanded comment. He claims he still thinks that Black Hat SEO is a waste of time, and is polluting the web. However, he says he has come to understand White Hat SEO practices through talking to people such as Neil Patel, Bruce Clay, and Michael Gray. He then acknowledged that he is in fact a White Hat SEO.

After addressing his previous comments, Jason went in to discussing the progress of Mahalo.com thus far, and what is coming up in the future. To start, he addressed some of the most common questions he has received about Mahalo, and its business model. Some of them included:

Isn’t this just another DMOZ?

Jason responds to this by acknowledging that the directory structure that is fairly similar to DMOZ and YHOO! Directory was intentional. He then went on to speculate that those directories failed because of accepting paid listings, or because of lack of attention from owners.

How will it scale?

Jason responded to this question by explaining that they now have over 400 people working from home creating Mahalo pages at a rate of more than 1,000 per week. He also pointed out that each page is relevant for multiple search terms, so each page is actually addressing over a dozen queries in one shot.

How will it be kept up to date?

In order to keep the website updated, as well as reduce costs, Mahalo has released Mahalo Social. This service has grown to over 17,000 members, and will allow people to submit links on the fly. Links can also be submitted though the Mahalo Toolbar. According to Jason, there are currently three fll time employees that are dedicated to reviewing link submissions.

After the most common questions, Jason addressed where the site is going. He then sowed screenshots of new and upcoming Mahalo features which included recommendations from friends that are embedded into the search results pages. He explained that he feels as though this approach is significantly more useful than having a list of interests buried within a Facebook profile because it allows you to see what your friends do and do not like during the searching process.

Jason also explained that the Mahalo Toolbar will allow users to export their Mahalo data (such as reviews) to other services, as well as syncing the information from other services into Mahalo. One of the more surprising features of the toolbar was its remixing of the Google search results page. In the example that was shown, there were indications next to results that are also included in pages on mahalo.com that are present as a sign of trust. More interesting was the friend recommendations that appeared along the right column, in place of the Google Adwords Ads. I have to wonder how Google will respond to the Mahalo Toolbar removing Adwords Ads, considering Mahalo uses Adsense to monetize pages. Jason seemed to be under the impression that Google will not be concerned since they haven’t actively spoken out against the multiple AdBlocker browser extensions. He also said that assuming it is allowed, the toolbar will have a similar presence on the Yahoo results pages as well.

All in all it was interesting to see someone that has been referred to as enemy number one of the SEO industry embrace more ethical SEO and affiliate marketing. However, it does make sense. Jason has baited the industry several times (intentionally, or not) and he’s fully aware that if it is over-done, it will become a permanent part of his reputation. It seems Calacanis is ready to call it a day with the baiting, and play nice with the industry.

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