15 December 2008

Mahalo offers cash incentive for answers

Human-powered search engine Mahalo launched a new crowd-sourced Q&A feature today, aiming to compete with similar sites like Yahoo Answers and Wiki.Answers.

But unlike those services, Mahalo Answers is introducing a marketplace for the answers shared by users. Through a user-to-user payment service, those who give good answers on Mahalo Answers could earn money for their knowledge.

When a question is submitted to Mahalo Answers, the questioner can offer a "tip" to whoever gives the best answer to their question. The service means most of the answers received will be reliable as a cash payment provides a great incentive to answer questions often and accurately.

Each Mahalo dollar is worth 75 cents in US dollars. Once a user has collected more than $40 US in Mahalo dollars, they can cash in their bucks and Mahalo will send them a cheque - keeping 25 per cent for themselves.

The service has a ranking system that drives the Mahalo economy, and which works towards preventing abuse of the system. This means that users who refuse to pay for answers and who post spam will be rated lower in the rankings.

Previously, Google had a Q&A site that allowed people to ask questions and pay for answers. But the service only involved a select group of research professionals, and it could often take awhile to get a reply.

"It became a very slow boring process, it didn't have that sort of fun game system to it," Mahalo founder Jason Calacanis told Wired magazine. "And it was high risk."

"Here people compete to give you the best answer," he said.

Mahalo is planning to jumpstart the Q&A economy by doling out several thousand dollars among current Mahalo members and testers.

Calacanis is quick to point out that the site discourages seeking serious health, financial or legal advice through the site. He says expects questions to be a mixture of factual requests and opinion.

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