Yesterday, Allan Stern posted Jason Calacanis, the founder of Mahalo, and Melinda part time guide at Mahalo, posted to defend Mahalo’s search results.
In the course of the conversation, Melinda, who does not like Kielbasa, described the process of creating the search results for the Kielbasa search results page. She said:
I put my best finger forward and created what I think is a page that were one to search for Kielbasa they would find the needed information without having to look through hundreds of results as I did. I ran into numerous pages of supposed Kielbasa recipes only to be linked to pages full of advertisements.
(Emphasis added.)
Mind you, I’m not sure I, or anyone, knows what the “needed information” is when one searches for “kielbasa”. That said, Mahalo’s top seven results are shown to the right. Most contain ads; I’ve circled the ones I consider riddled with ads.
Still, if Melinda is correct, we will find “the needed information” on these pages that percolated up as she sorted through hundreds of results available on Google. Presumably, we will find also find fewer ads and/or better information than on results returned by Google.
Comparison shows just as many (if not more) ads on Mahalo search results as on Google search results.
First, let’s look at the #1 result on both pages: Wikipedia. So far we have a tie between Mahalo and Google. Now, let’s examine the #2 results.
#2 Keibasa result on Google: Some ads.
The number 1 result on Google is currently Cooks.com recipe search for Kielbasa. If you click the image to make it larger and look at the central panel at Cooks.com, you’ll see that Cooks.com has 317 recipes for Kielbasa; the top 10 are provided on #1 search result returned by Google. Brief introductions, which mention ingredients are provided for each recipe.
Two clealry identifiable recipe descriptions appear above the fold, where the person doing the search can find them. More are revealed if you scroll. The recipe descriptions include ingredients, which permits me to read, and click links to read the kielbasa recipes that look yummy to me.
Honestly, if I were looking for kielbasa recipes, I would be very happy with the #1 search result returned by Google.
What about ads?
Admittedly, the search result page contains ads. There’s a banner ad across the top and along the side. There are some Google adsense below the fold. We see similar results if we visit the recipe pages at Cooks.com.
But is this a lot of ads? Why don’t we defer our decision until after we look at the results at Mahalo?
#2 Kielbasa result on Mahalo: Loaded with ads.
The #2 Mahalo kielbasa results appears to be Martha Stewart’s recipe for “Roasted Keilbasa.”
Let’s examine this page carefully: there is no recipe above the fold. In fact, when I first arrived at the page, I wasn’t sure I would find any recipe.
Why not? Because above the fold we are told a recipe for the item pictured comes from Martha’s book “Entertaining”; for all we know, we will be lead to a link to buy the book. In fact, above the fold we see only ads and navigation.
When we scroll down, we find a rather mundane recipe. Martha uses a lot of words but the instructions but essentially says this: Simmer the kielbasa in water, then roast. Serve with horseradish on rye bread.
That’s the sort of recipe one might expect to find printed on package of Kielbasa one finds in the local grocery store. Two rather simpler recipes appear on Eckrich Kielbasa.
Martha’s recipe, highlighted at Mahalo, may save someone’s mom, somewhere some time. But I doubt it.
Are there more ads on Martha’s page?
Starting from the top we see:
- Yellow buttons with the word ‘magazines’ link to pages enticing us to fork over money and subscribe to Martha Stewart publications. A ‘radio’ link to page promoting Martha’s radio program. The word ‘subscribe’ links to page suggesting we hand over money to subscribe to a variety of Martha Stewart products.
Were these links on another site passing through an affiliate referral, no one would deny they are ads. On Martha’s site, they are still ads.
- A banner ad across the top the page. A banner ad along the side. Scrolling down reveals more ads to Martha Stewart products below the recipe. (Had there been no other ads, this would have resulted in a tie with Cooks.com!)
- When you scroll down further you find ads for additional Martha Stewart products and web sites.
Clearly, what we have found one big humogous ad!
(Martha is a savvy business woman. She does not give valuable stuff away for free!)
Are there ads on the other Mahalo results?
Absolutely! The Amazon.com’s page is nothing but a set of links to third party Amazon.com vendors. It’s one big ad. The ads on Epicurious move!
Are you not convinced yet?
If you are not convinced Mahalo search results have more ads than Google search results, I invite you to visit Google’s kielbasa search results and compare them to Mahalo results.
Have fun!
[...] Mahalo as Jason’s personal propaganda machine, far from being unbiased and far from providing quality and free from ads search results, while some think that Mahalo itself is a spam [...]