Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in Mahalo Picks Up Where Google Answers Left Off

Re: Mahalo Picks Up Where Google Answers Left Off

John — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:43:19 -0000

Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free, like at Yahoo Answers (http://www.yahooanswers.com) or WikiAnswers (http://www.wikianswers.com)

Re: Mahalo Picks Up Where Google Answers Left Off

Jeremy — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:48:09 -0000

Alison: nice try.

Yahoo Answers won't be stopped by your money losing company :) (you commented on our blog a while ago).

Let's see, who's the biggest in Q&A?
Yahoo Answers (150 ish million monthly visitors)
Wiki.Answers.com (why Yahoo.Answers.com redirects there...I have no idea, if they'd STOP doing that, my bet is they'd collaps) with 41 million visitors
Answerbag (demand media) 10 million visitors
Blurtit (independent, UK company) 5 million visitors
Askville.amazon 4.5 million visitors
Ask.metafilter 4 million monthly visitors
FunAdvice 2.4 million monthly visitors

*** Answerology, Yedda = while acquired, traffic to small to consider worht mentioning.

*** Sodahead.com is more polling, but gets a paultry 1.5 million monthly visitors

Mahalo, per quantcast, gets 3.6 million monthly visitors...so, just by virtue of their total audience size, they could be #7 in a very crowded space. However, given that not all their visitors will be using Q&A at the beginning (I'd bet less than half) that'd put them at 8th place.

Now, seeing that WikiAnswers is public, and they earn (roughly) 1.9 cents per visitors (see their SEC filing) this will net Mahalo an incremental...zero, b/c they probably earn similar on their other page types today.

The real question is: can this translate into serious Mahalo Bucks? In the paid Q&A space, justanswer.com has been the leader for years...which, again, this blog post & others didn't mention they get about 4 million visitors, average question price seems to be 6 bucks from our research. Depending on the transaction fee that Mahalo keeps...it could be a LOT more profitable than free Q&A.

Re: Mahalo Picks Up Where Google Answers Left Off

Jodi Suguitan — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:20:37 -0000

i think people will be on board until they realize they have to pay for an answer, then they will go to google for most answers. Perhaps there will be a small fraction of users willing to pay if it is extremely valuable information from a true expert on a subject. Perhaps medical or career advice from someone who has the right credentials. The only thing that crosses my mind is if those types of experts will be willing to give that kind of advice for fear of liability.

Re: Mahalo Picks Up Where Google Answers Left Off

Gadget Sleuth — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:10:11 -0000

Good idea, but will people really be honest and pay up, especially for stuff you can probably search engine and get the answers to for the most part? Eh, if I were the betting type, i'd say no.

Re: Mahalo Picks Up Where Google Answers Left Off

Tyler — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:52:44 -0000

Tinu,

To clarify, on Mahalo Answers you don't have to pay to see the answers.

Re: Mahalo Picks Up Where Google Answers Left Off

Fay Mason — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 05:49:37 -0000

Why would I bother to use or pay for this when Google will 9/10 give me the right and best answer??????????

Not a hope in hell of working. Dumb!

Re: Mahalo Picks Up Where Google Answers Left Off

Tinu — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 04:24:14 -0000

Hm. Want. As an expert/answerer of course.

I've seen a couple of sites that charge users for answers. I only used one once, but I didn't want the answer badly enough.

On the other hand, that would be the key market: if my question was, how do I make this headache stop NOW, or where's the best place to get next-day ezine advertising online, maybe I'd be willing to pay for the answer... hm...