Is Calacanis Trying to Bury Mahalo’s Scent?

Valleywag speculates on what Jason Calacanis is cooking up for his next act. Whatever it is, my guess is Jason will indulge his passion for Hawaii and name the operation Mahalo. It’s no secret that he owns mahalo.com, and he’s been doing some background work on the word itself.

But something happened yesterday that caught my attention. Early on Monday, Mark Pincus, in the midst of piloting cross country, posted a brief primer on his angel investment focus. The version of the post I read in Google Reader listed, among other investments, “*mahalo – jason calacanis’s new co*.”  I was surprised the name wasn’t referenced in the Valleywag piece, if for no other reason than a well known angel investor just mentioned it earlier in the day.

I went directly to Mark’s blog to reread the post. Funny, the “mahalo” reference was nowhere to be found. Odd. I did a quick search on Google to see if it got a nibble of the original post. Lo and behold, it appears “mahalo” was removed from the later version of the post and “podcasting/vlogging” was added.

Perhaps Mark thought “podcasting/vlogging” would be more descriptive than simply naming “mahalo.” If that’s the case, it would appear Jason’s next act is in this realm. But Mark’s original post was sent via Blackberry and he’s in the middle of flying across the country. Is this minor edit top of mind? Does he think twice after he thumbs it in? Hard to believe.

Which brings up another possibility. Someone didn’t want the name out for public consumption.  Someone opted to toss out the podcasting/vlogging (dis?)information.  Someone wanted the Mahalo scent to go cold.  But who – - and why??  Search me.