Biggest non-secret in the search industry – Jason Calacanis launches a new human powered search service called Mahalo.

A directory, in other words.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I like directories. I run a few of my own. I’m not sure what I was expecting. Something new, perhaps.

What we’ve got is About.com crossed with Yahoo Directory.

It will make money though. I imagine the idea is to feature in Google’s results, like Wikipedia does, rather than be a search destination to rival Google. And unlike Wikipedia, Mahalo runs Adsense.

Google wants human verified content. Like well-run directories, Jason is giving it to them. For example, if Google has a problem sorting out which links it wants to assign the most value to, then credible human-powered directories help solve this issue. Nothing new, of course. And one of the problems is going to be link-rot.

It’s interesting mainly because it’s from Jason. This could be see as an SEO play from Mr “SEO is Bullshit” himself, or, if my theory about positioning himself as a kingmaker by verifying links is correct, an anti-SEO play. I’m guessing a mix of the two.

Amusing. The exit strategy is possibly even being bought by Google itself.