Mahalo Answers Offers Cash ‘Tips’ For Best Answers

Human-powered search site Mahalo launches a familiar-seeming group Q&A forum, Mahalo Answers, with a Google-like twist—having the best answer might just earn you a few bucks from the question-asker. In other words, it’s intended to be a cross between the pay-for-answers seriousness of Google’s now-shuttered Answers tool, which tilted toward researchers and super-specific questions, and Yahoo’s own wide-open Answers. Mahalo is seeding a few hundred thousand “Mahalo Bucks” (worth $0.75 in real dollars, cash-able after accumulating $40) to current Mahalo members and testers for spending on answers. And to prevent fraud and cheap-skating, askers will have four days to pick an answer before other users choose it for them, and rating systems are intended to kill off spammers and griefers. If Yahoo just isn’t cutting it for you, or you’re looking for a semi-serious answer to a question you’re willing to spend a few on, Mahalo Answers might be the place to sound off.