Take a look at Mahalo.com's search return for the iPhone. The page is dominated by outdated information, the most prominent is an ancient YouTube video of a CBS news report from prior to the phone's release. The most-asked question about Mahalo's user-generated search results was how they would keep the information up-to-date. I've heard Mahalo's creators promise that it would not be a problem, citing Wikipedia as an example. They have obviously failed in the near term. If they can't even keep information on a hot topic like the iPhone relevant, Mahalo may have to find other ways to survive.
Toward that end, it's interesting to note that the the Mahalo iPhone page came up on the second page of Google results for the iPhone. So, it seems that Mahalo is becoming an SEO rather than a search engine.
2 comments:
Interesting... the page says it was updated a couple of days ago on Sept 19th.
Also, we have tons of new pages related to the iPhone linked to right from the top. Since it's such a huge topic we've added additional pages like these:
Breaking News: 8GB iPhone price reduced to $399 at the September 5th Apple Event
Also try: iPhone Unlocked
Also try: iPhone Tips
Also try: iPhone Applications
Also try: iPhone Accessories
Also try: iUnlock
Also, the iPhone page has a bunch of live RSS feeds... so it stay fresh even if we're not on it.
finally, there is the submitted links section where people keep submitting links.
i think the CBS video is a great overview, prob. the reason they have it there.
if you look at the google result it will have engadget posts that are old as well because they are noteworthy. So, age of page doesn't mean low quality.
best jason
Hey, this is Mike over at Mahalo. I am in charge of keeping the iPhone page updated.
Thanks for your criticism. I updated the page today in light of it. The page needed a bit of reorganizing. The CBS video is still great information even though it was made a while back. I found a more interesting video, so moved the CBS video down the page and replaced it.
As Jason mentioned, When a user searches for "iPhone" they are given page with the best general links on the iPhone. They are also given the option to go to the pages designed specifically for breaking topics at the top. Having all of the information from those pages on one single page would be overwhelming.
Mahalo for your feedback,
Mike
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