answered question
1
Vote
Vote
5
Answers
Answers
M$0.00
Is Mahalo becoming a gossip site?
Or maybe "current events" is the better term. Right now, looking at the Popular tab, 6 out of 10 questions are about Chris Brown/Rhianna, or the Bentley chase.
Is this a good thing for the site? Do you think it's what Jason had in mind? Mahalo Answers doesn't seem to be evolving into a Wikipedia-like search destination, but more of a "what's the latest on what's happening now" sort of a site. While I have to admit I don't really care about most of the gossip stuff, I am noticing that many times I will see a news story on Mahalo *before* I see it in my newsfeeds, or on the actual news. That says something.
Is this a good thing for the site? Do you think it's what Jason had in mind? Mahalo Answers doesn't seem to be evolving into a Wikipedia-like search destination, but more of a "what's the latest on what's happening now" sort of a site. While I have to admit I don't really care about most of the gossip stuff, I am noticing that many times I will see a news story on Mahalo *before* I see it in my newsfeeds, or on the actual news. That says something.
answers (5)
I'm seeing a lot of that kind of thing, too, and I'm really not interested in it. One of the few things I'm NOT interested in!
But there for awhile, it looked like a techie site. It will probably go through cycles of being one thing or another.
Answer: Post some non-gossip questions!
But there for awhile, it looked like a techie site. It will probably go through cycles of being one thing or another.
Answer: Post some non-gossip questions!
| Asker's rating: |
I expect that Trace is right, it will go through cycles before it gains critical mass in all areas and settles down to be a nice all-purpose search portal.
I think that for some folks, Mahalo Answers is something of a substitute blog. Instead of having your own space where you post the Bentley video and say "Here's my thoughts on what happened", you post a question to MAnswers and ask people "What do you think happened?" It is a very Twittery/social-networking way to think, and very community-oriented (i.e. you wouldn't think that way if you did not already feel like you belong to this community of people and are interested in their thoughts).
Tip shakespearegeek for this comment
|
Report
I does seem to be becoming a gossip site even though I don't like it. However, I doubt that Jason minds since this drives a lot of traffic to the website ;)
Mahalo is not a "gossip site," per se, yet celebrity gossip is one of the categories to choose from, and so is news. The site is really driven on what people ask, so it might look like it's a gossip site if gossipy questions are being asked. Also, there are plenty of current events people like to talk about and ask questions about, so Mahalo Answers is a good place to ask about them, and Mahalo keeps us up to date with the events. Likewise, when you think about it, Mahalo increases its search engine optimization when a current event is mentioned, talked about, or asked within a question. Someone may ask that same question or have a similar question about a news story, and therefore come to Mahalo just to see the news. I believe it's good, as Mahalo links its news stories and search stories to the Answers section on the site. It's also good because a lot of people just read the news, and don't always question it. This allows people to question the news, actually think about it, and have a conversation through answering questions.
Why is this good for Mahalo Answers? It's extra good for Mahalo Answers because they can get higher search engine rankings, and more people will see the question and answer.
What I believe Mahalo Answers does a good job at, well at least some of the guides, and users is finding questions that have been asked on other sites, and asking them a little better, or differently. If an answer is asked on another site, and it is raised to the top of the search engine results, Mahalo believes it can do the same with the same exact question. Give it a try, enter a search and you will see that Mahalo Answers and Mahalo is landing on the first search results page, and sometimes in the first search result for some gossip or news categories. This is interesting to think about.
Why is this good for Mahalo Answers? It's extra good for Mahalo Answers because they can get higher search engine rankings, and more people will see the question and answer.
What I believe Mahalo Answers does a good job at, well at least some of the guides, and users is finding questions that have been asked on other sites, and asking them a little better, or differently. If an answer is asked on another site, and it is raised to the top of the search engine results, Mahalo believes it can do the same with the same exact question. Give it a try, enter a search and you will see that Mahalo Answers and Mahalo is landing on the first search results page, and sometimes in the first search result for some gossip or news categories. This is interesting to think about.
I disagree with just how good you think it is, particularly for SEO. Current events and news questions are very bursty in their popularity, so while people might search for Chris Brown and Rhianna like crazy for a week, next week no one will care - so basically all those questions end up pretty useless/irrelevant. So instead of a "search engine destination" that turns into one of the foundations of the web, like Wikipedia, you end up with something more like TMZ where there's really nothing but a homepage with a steady stream of gossip and video clips. It may still be a good business model that makes money, I just didn't think that was the goal of the site (the gossip bit, not the making-money bit).
I think you'll get a little bit of gossip anywhere you go. It's nothing to be concerned about, as some quality questions and answers are still being posted.
Yes. Something needs to be done. Mahalo seems to be encouraging it because Jason and employees seem to be asking a lot of the inane questions. This will turn off people who like researching real questions and could kill the site.
Related questions
140 characters left
ask any question
