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ChaCha is a mobile question answering service which uses a technique known as the human search engine. ChaCha was created by Scott A. Jones and Brad Bostic. The company is based in Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.
[edit] Name
The name ChaCha comes from the Mandarin Chinese word, cha (simplified Chinese: 查; traditional Chinese: wikt:查; pinyin: chá; Wade-Giles: ch'a), which means "to search." [2] The number users send text message questions to is 242242, which corresponds to the company name "ChaCha" on a standard mobile keypad can or call 1-800-2-ChaCha to send a voice question. [edit] HistoryThe alpha version of the ChaCha was launched on September 1, 2006. A beta version was introduced on November 6, 2006.[3] ChaCha said 20,000 guides had registered by year end and that it had raised US$6 million in development funds, including support from Bezos Expeditions, a personal investment firm owned by Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur behind Amazon.com.[4] By January 2008 AP reported that ChaCha had 5,000 freelance guides with no less than 500 working at any one time.[5] Washington Post partner mogonews.com reported that ChaCha's first round of equity financing was actually US$ 14 million plus a US$ 2 million grant from 21st Century Technology Fund.[6] ChaCha announced on March 17, 2009[7] a new round of equity financing totaling US$12 million[8] while also laying off 25 employees and a 10 percent reduction in the remaining 56 salaries.[1][9] [edit] Products[edit] Desktop searchChaCha had originally been founded with the intention to offer human-guided search from within a web browser and for the search engine to learn from the results provided by their independent contractors.[10] The system offered a chat on the left side of the page where users could chat with the guides and conclude their search.[10] The center of the page contained the results that a guide could add or remove (later users could also add or remove these results). The right side of the page contained ads that were relevant to the search.[11] Desktop search was phased out in April 2008 in favor of mobile products.[12] [edit] SMS searchIn January 2008 ChaCha launched a new text service that allowed users to ask questions and receive answers via text message.[13] Unlike similar Mobile search services ChaCha does not require special character codes to get results as searches are answered by humans instead of computer interpretation. A plain sentence question will get an answer along with a link to a short URL that takes users to a page that contains source information along with the guide's name. ChaCha's question limits vary by customer based on what it calls "complex algorithms."[14] ChaCha does not impose a limit on certain abbreviated questions [15] and those who call in questions to 1-800-2ChaCha receive answers by text message.[16] [edit] Voice searchChaCha launched its beta version of a call-in search service on April 1, 2008, while discontinuing its less effective guided web search.[12] Users call a toll-free number, and their questions are answered by a human via SMS messaging. [edit] Mobile marketingIn July 2008, ChaCha launched its first mobile marketing campaign with Coca-Cola to promote its My Coke Rewards program to users interested in NASCAR racing.[17] Fox News reported that ChaCha planned by mid 2008 to charge $5–$10 per month once 10 queries was exceeded[18] (as of December 26th, 2009 no additional fees have been implemented).[19] In November, 2008, ChaCha launched its SMS Advertising Platform at ad:tech New York.[20][21] In March 2009, ChaCha reports 30 million "impressions per month" and "3.6 Million users" since January 2008.[22][23] An ESPN article stated that ChaCha gets about 600,000 questions each day.[24] A former Yahoo executive opened a New York office for ChaCha in hopes of increasing advertising.[1][25] [edit] GuidesChaCha uses independent contractors it calls Guides.[26] There are four main types of guides: Expeditors, Generalists, Specialists and Transcribers.[27] Expeditors categorize questions, convert them into standard form, provide direct responses for certain question types, and also make sure that an answer doesn't already exist for that question.[28] The purposes of a Generalist, "the original and basic ChaCha Guide role," are to: determine what the customer's question is, find an answer to the question using the internet, format the answer into a text message, and add "magic" to the answer which gives it a human quality.[29] Specialists are a more selective group of guides. They have all of the same purposes as a Generalist but they sign up for specific categories of questions based on their interest in and knowledge of those categories.[30] The duty of Transcribers is to listen to questions recorded by customers who call into 1-800-2ChaCha then convert the recorded message into text form so that Generalists and Specialists can answer them.[31] Expeditors receive $0.03 per question[32], and transcribers receive $0.03 to transcribe a message.[33] Effective February 18, 2009, text guides receive between $0.10 and $0.22 for each answer, based upon the difficulty of the questions. Andrew Berg of WirelessWeek.com reported on March 18, 2009 that ChaCha's reduction in pay rates to guides resulted in a "huge outcry on message boards" including predictions of the massive exodus of the many thousands of existing guides.[34] Berg also reports that ChaCha tells potential guides that the average earnings are $3 to $9 per hour.[8][35] Wages are based on active time only, and do not include idle time spent logged in when questions are not available. Since 2008 there has been a drastic cut in job availability. As of December 2009, ChaCha is hiring new Guides again.[36] ESPN columnist, Rick Reilly, joined as a Guide for sports questions temporarily and joked he was "Lucy working the chocolate-factory conveyor belt" making usually over $4 per hour once he got trained.[24] [edit] PressThe Wall Street Journal’s personal technology columnist, Walt Mossberg, characterized ChaCha as having "fast, accurate, useful answers" in his April 24, 2008 column If You Have ChaCha and a Cellphone, You Have Answers.[37] In April 2009, ESPN's Rick Reilly spent some time working for ChaCha for an article on ESPN The Magizine. Reilly says:
[edit] See also[edit] References
[edit] External links |
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