ChaCha Search
November 2, 2006 by Jason Bean
Filed under Computers
Search has been a popular topic for me lately here. We’ve talked about Google’s Custom Search but I’ve been more interested in the developments of search behind the standard new kid on the block and into more of the synergy between searching and social tagging as I discussed here.
I covered a newcomer to the game URL.com on Uncover the Internet, and now there’s another one I’ve become aware of called ChaCha developed by local “inventor.entrepreneur.pioneer” Scott A. Jones.
All-in-all, ChaCha isn’t much different from other search engines that provide services like Google Answers, Yahoo Answers, or even the original Ask Jeeves when it had a personal slant.
ChaCha uses “Guides” that are skilled in the areas you’re searching and help you find a great site giving you just the information you need. This separates them from the previously mentioned sites in that the guides don’t necessarily answer your question, but instead guide you to the best location they’re aware of for the answer.
By searching with a Guide your query is sent to a real person who is skilled at finding information on the internet and knowledgable on the subject at hand so that you get the few exact results you want, not the millions of results you don’t.
ChaCha only provides quality, human approved results.
I’m curious as to what qualifies the guide as being “skilled” and “knowledgeable” on what I’m searching. It may get close to the “authority” or specialized idea that I’ve talked about before, but will it really work? The other challenge I’m thinking of for ChaCha is time. Normally if I’m searching for something I need an answer fairly quickly, how many guides are available that are skilled and knowledgeable in my needs?
In a quick chat with a friend about the service, he said he didn’t think it would do to well. He used it once and asked a question about ASP and C#. The guide responded with something along the lines of “Okay, let me help you with that C++ search”. He clarified by reminding him he asked for C#, to which the guide responded “Oh, like the music?”. Doesn’t sound too “skilled” and “knowledgeable” to me. My friend responded with “Okay, I’ll wait while you Google it”.
ChaCha is upfront and announces their “Alpha” status, let’s just see how their future greek alphabet progresses in the software development areas.
I completely agree – what does qualify someone as “skilled” or “credible”? All this hoopla about 2.0 has me wondering: “where have all our experts gone?” I think eBay’s reputation system is the best measure of an individual’s credibility but I haven’t seen a comparable measure in the world of 2.0.
I am currently testing a service called AskMeNow – basically it’s a mobile Q&A service that you can use on ANY cell phone w/ text messaging capabilities.
Here’s how it works: you text any question to ASKME wait a few minutes and then, voila, you receive an answer. How does it work? Well, from what I understand the question is first sent to a database. Then, if the question can’t be answered by the database then it is sent to an actual human who does the research and texts back an answer.
So far, all my questions have been answered with 100% accuracy. While it’s still unclear where the information comes from, at least it has been correct. I guess that’s all we can ask for, right?