After Google rolled out its Panda algorithm update earlier this year, Mahalo, run by Jason Calcanis, got hit hard, and the company had to reduce its staff by 10%. Calacanis told us, “All we can do is put our heads down and continue to make better and better content. If we do our job I’m certain the algorithm will treat us fairly in the long-term. The 90+ members of our team are rallying around this challenge, and you will continue to see amazing content from experts with real credentials at Mahalo.com.”

Calacanis spoke about Panda again today at a ReadWriteWeb event, saying, “Yeah, Panda has cut our traffic in half. Yet, it didn’t affect our YouTube traffic at all.”

It is quite interesting to note how Google attitude towards quality content seems to be quite a bit different when it comes to YouTube. This is something HubPages CEO Paul Edmondson has brought up several times, particularly in relation to how Google has treated YouTube content in its search results. YouTube was actually helped by the Panda update.

Also worth noting, is that Demand Media is the biggest supplier of video to YouTube. As you may know, some of Demand’s properties got hit hard by the update as well. The company recently announced it was getting rid of some of its lower quality eHow content, but implied that we shouldn’t expect much of the company’s video content to be coming down.

ReadWriteWeb’s Dan Rowinski covered Calcanis’s session, reporting:

Essentially, Calacanis sees the future of the Web through the lenses of experts who produce video. He does not hold out hope that he can approach Google to tweak Panda so that Mahalo does not suffer along with the rest of the so-called content farms.

Calacanis is also betting on the resurrection of the email newsletter, this time as an interactive discussion engine of experts. His newest venture is called Launch and is centered around tech news. And as he is known to do, Calacanis is predicting big things for Launch.

We’re not entirely sure what he means by the resurrection of the email newsletter, as this medium has been thriving for quite some time. Calacanis also said blogging is dead.