Imagine: A Technology That Relies on People

Humans may not be obsolete after all--at least not as far as Jason Calacanis is concerned.

The Weblogs founder and former AOL executive today launched Mahalo.com, a human-powered search engine with live editors who compile information from Google, Yahoo and other sites, offer their own suggestions and manage user groups on various search terms.

The idea is to best traditional search engines by adding a human touch. "Why hasn't this been done before? Because everyone who's come to search has come with a Stanford Ph.D.," Calacanis said.

Mahalo has already nabbed a handful of high-profile investors, including News Corp., CBS, Germany's Hubert Burda Media and Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley firm behind YouTube.

Calacanis is cagey about the size of those investments, but said he has enough money to run Mahalo for at least five years. That could be quite a sum, considering his plans to expand Mahalo's 40-person staff to as many as 100 next year.

Mahalo's backers have deep pockets, especially Sequoia, which nurtured Calacanis as he developed the company, naming him to the post of "entrepreneur in action" late last year.

Calacanis has already made money for investors (including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban) who bet on his previous start-up, Weblogs Inc. AOL picked up the blog company in 2005 for a reported $30 million. Calacanis worked as general manager for AOL's Netscape before departing last year.

Calacanis launched the site today at the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital conference at the Four Seasons Resort in Carlsbad, California.

by Clancy Nolan