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A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

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Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#21

Post by rokhayakebe »

arnorhs wrote: post #15
S_A_P wrote: post #13

Could someone tell me more about this Jason Calacanis fellow. He seems to be a very polarizing figure on this site. Really all I know is that he seemed to have a falling out with Michael Arrington and alot of articles seem to mention him in a slightly negative light. Is there some reason for this, and no I'm not trying to troll.

You should check out some of his shows on http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-startups/ - you can get a sense of who he is from watching a few. The general consensus on HN is that he doesn't treat people well or is somehow not very "honest". Personally, I'm a big fan. I watch every episode and I generally agree with most of what he says.

I agree. He just seems brutally honest, and that gets him in trouble. But hate him or love him, the guy does a great job with TWIST. I do not use Mahalo, so I cannot speak for it.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#22

Post by bigwally »

S_A_P wrote: post #13

Could someone tell me more about this Jason Calacanis fellow. He seems to be a very polarizing figure on this site. Really all I know is that he seemed to have a falling out with Michael Arrington and alot of articles seem to mention him in a slightly negative light. Is there some reason for this, and no I'm not trying to troll.

First impressions count for a lot. A lot of people may have seen the name of Jason Calacanis prior to his falling out with Michael Arrington but the name did not stick.

When there is malicious gossip people pay attention to the name. First impressions count.

Disclaimer: I couldn't care less about Arrington or Calacanis.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#23

Post by robryan »

acangiano wrote: post #12
dminor wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is only the beginning of good news due to this algo change. There are many legitimate businesses that have been positively impacted by traffic gains and we'll probably see more hiring and raises.

Absolutely. SEO really is a zero-sum game.

Somewhat but not totally, if the wrong sites win the SEO game there are going to be more users either driven to the wrong site or giving up on their search. The more users being sent to the highest quality place they can go for that query the bigger the potential pool is for profiting from search position.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#25

Post by shuri »

S_A_P wrote: post #13

Could someone tell me more about this Jason Calacanis fellow. He seems to be a very polarizing figure on this site. Really all I know is that he seemed to have a falling out with Michael Arrington and alot of articles seem to mention him in a slightly negative light. Is there some reason for this, and no I'm not trying to troll.

He seems to be doing a lot of good stuff: http://thisweekin.com , the launch conference http://launch.is , http://openangelforum.com/

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#27

Post by gojomo »

arnorhs wrote: post #15
S_A_P wrote: post #13

Could someone tell me more about this Jason Calacanis fellow. He seems to be a very polarizing figure on this site. Really all I know is that he seemed to have a falling out with Michael Arrington and alot of articles seem to mention him in a slightly negative light. Is there some reason for this, and no I'm not trying to troll.

You should check out some of his shows on http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-startups/ - you can get a sense of who he is from watching a few. The general consensus on HN is that he doesn't treat people well or is somehow not very "honest". Personally, I'm a big fan. I watch every episode and I generally agree with most of what he says.

I don't think it's possible to assess a 'general consensus' on almost anything here. There are themes, they recur disproportionately on certain threads, but do most commenters (much less readers) agree on a position, even if it is oft/loudly expressed? Hard to say anything more than 'many' or 'loud' people have an opinion.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#28

Post by mrjasonroy »

YooLi wrote: post #5
justinchen wrote: post #2

I think this only the beginning of the bad news due to this algo change. There are many legitimate businesses that have been seriously impacted by traffic drops and we'll probably see many more layoffs and budget cuts.

Out of curiosity, can you name some of the legitimate businesses that were affected? I thought the algo only targeted content farms and sites that regurgitated other peoples content.

One property my company holds, http://www.dentalcompare.com has been affected. It's a classic product comparison site (with a lot of problems) but there is not "farming" of content. Every company provides their products and every article is original or at most, a small abstract.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#29

Post by Dramatize »

arnorhs wrote: post #15
S_A_P wrote: post #13

Could someone tell me more about this Jason Calacanis fellow. He seems to be a very polarizing figure on this site. Really all I know is that he seemed to have a falling out with Michael Arrington and alot of articles seem to mention him in a slightly negative light. Is there some reason for this, and no I'm not trying to troll.

You should check out some of his shows on http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-startups/ - you can get a sense of who he is from watching a few. The general consensus on HN is that he doesn't treat people well or is somehow not very "honest". Personally, I'm a big fan. I watch every episode and I generally agree with most of what he says.

If your're new to startups, the early Thisweekin Startups shows have really useful tips on pitching etc.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#30

Post by arnorhs »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #21
arnorhs wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should check out some of his shows on http://thisweekin.com/thisweekin-startups/ - you can get a sense of who he is from watching a few. The general consensus on HN is that he doesn't treat people well or is somehow not very "honest". Personally, I'm a big fan. I watch every episode and I generally agree with most of what he says.

I agree. He just seems brutally honest, and that gets him in trouble. But hate him or love him, the guy does a great job with TWIST. I do not use Mahalo, so I cannot speak for it.

Same here. I don't even remember ending up on a Mahalo search results page, come to think of it.
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