Mahalo.com: Ask A Question, Any Time (Even Anonymously)

What do you get when you put together a newspaper, portal, Q &A site, recruitment site, an e-store, and much more (there are really too many to list)? The result is Mahalo.com. Instead of taking the usual approach of putting up a Q &A site, Mahalo.com took an integrated approach by making itself look like a Q &A supersite with some other things thrown in. Mahalo Answers, then, is the actual site that focuses on Q &A.

Popular, neat and tidy

While the actual pages of Mahalo answers have a bluish-green tinge to it which makes it a trifle drab and boring, the site design itself is highly utilitarian. Easy to use, easy to navigate and doesn’t take much for you to actually begin to ask and receive questions. The gravatars accompanying every question makes for an interesting addition. Every question is listed as “open”, “Answered” and “expiring”. Mahalo.com is a hugely popular site with an Alexa rank of 1547 and a U.S specific rank of 721 with over 5001 sites linking in. Quite a site to be active in, don’t you think?

An Easy, 2-page, questioning process

The “Ask a question” box is located prominently on the top-right corner of the Mahalo Answers Home page (this is in addition to the rather large one on mahalo.com home page). The questioning process is a two paged one and you don’t have to register for a separate account if you can llog-in using your Facebook or Twitter account. If you would like to remain anonymous, Mahalo Answers gives you that option.

Tipping and Mahalo Dollars

A Mahalo Dollar? That sounds like another currency altogether but it’s a great way to create a strong brand, if you ask me. Mahalo Dollars are credits you can purchase so you can the experts who take the time and effort to answer your question (which is optional). The tipping is yet another interesting aspect I found which could keep the experts motivated while the users get some really well-researched answers or at least answers which can help the users in one way or the other.

Where are the categories?

On Mahalo Answers, Categories are “Topic Pages” and I was actually looking for it frantically the first time I visited Mahalo Answers. The topics list is on the right hand side, hidden below the questioning module and the top members’ leader board. I would have preferred it to be on the top along the green tabs or somewhere else more prominent. As such, the categories are pretty standard given the general nature of the site and I believe they could have been a bit more expansive and wider in scope.

The Mahalo Store and Mahalo How-to

Like I mentioned above, Mahalo aims to be a super Q &A site – almost like a portal. So, we have Mahalo Store and a series of Interesting topics on the Mahalo “How-to”. I must admit that the articles are detailed and are complete with images and videos almost on the lines of sites like ehow.com and suite101.com. The Mahalo Store has interesting stuff that you could buy either with actual money or even Mahalo Dollars. The more active you are on the site, the more dollars you might get using which you can buy products off the store.

Interesting for a Q &A site, isn’t it?