NMK 2007: Jason Calacanis' Mahalo Greenhouse will pay YOU for writing search results
Today sees a bunch of Web 2.0 luminaries converging on London for the NMK 2007 conference, debating all aspects of social media. Kat is there liveblogging it as we speak. And the big news so far has been the announcement of Malaho Greenhouse, which is offering to pay internet users to submit search results, which will be used on search engine Mahalo.com.
Unveiled by founder Jason Calacanis, former CEO of Weblogs Inc, it involves users submitting search results, and getting paid $10-15 for every one that’s accepted for use on Mahalo. The company will favour people who are active on social networking sites, are professionals in their chosen field, or who contribute to sites like Wikipedia and Digg.
There’s an altruistic side too: users can choose to take the dosh they earn, or donate it to Wikipedia. Where’s the money coming from to pay users? Mahalo has VC backing from Sequoia Capital, and Calacanis says the company has enough cash to pay people for search entries for five years – the key to this, of course, is that Mahalo decides how many search entries to accept, so can keep a rein on how much money it’s paying out.
Mahalo is apparently paying its full-time employees super-fat salaries to try and ensure they don’t take bribes to accept certain entries. It sounds like the idea got a rousing reception at NMK 2007, and the Mahalo Greenhouse site has just gone live, so you can sign up and start trying to earn those bucks.
Mahalo Greenhouse site
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