ChaCha (search engine)

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ChaCha

Type	Beta
Founded	Carmel, Indiana (September 1, 2006)
Headquarters	Carmel, Indiana, USA
Key people	Scott A. Jones, Founder Brad Bostic, Founder
Industry	Internet
Employees	about 80,000^[1], (2007)
Website	chacha.com

ChaCha is a search engine that pays human "guides" to answer questions for users. This is a technique known as social searching. ChaCha was created by Scott A. Jones, inventor and entrepreneur, and Brad Bostic, the chairman of Bostech Corporation. ChaCha is based out of Carmel, Indiana.

1 Basic Information
2 Guides
- 2.1 Guide Levels
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Basic Information

The alpha version of the search engine was launched on September 1, 2006. A beta version was introduced on November 6, 2006.^[2] The service achieved 20,000 guides by year end^[3]. ChaCha also raised $6 million in development funds, including support from Bezos Expeditions, a personal investment firm owned by Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur behind Amazon.com^[4]

The guide-less search function is based around the idea that the system will learn from the acquired results through storing the best-rated search results and providing the same results for similar searches in the future. Users report various levels of satisfaction with the guided search at this time.

[edit] Guides

A ChaCha guide is a person who signs up with ChaCha to make money by finding things for others through the ChaCha service. To become a guide, a person must be invited by a guide who has reached the master level. In a guided session, the guide and user use an instant messaging interface within the web browser to clarify and communicate about the search and the results the guide is providing. Guides note their areas of expertise or interest, and searches are directed based on these keywords as well as user ratings. Guides have access to three special areas of of http://www.chacha.com not normally accessable to the public. The "Underground" as it is called allows guides to maintain profiles and communicate with other guides. The forums are for suggestions and problems with Chacha. And finally the Knowledge Base (Or KB) contains dozens of articles useful for guides.

[edit] Guide Levels

There are four different levels for guides to obtain for each of their keywords. A guide does not have a level associated with himself, but with the keywords that he has chosen. The first level is the "Apprentice" level. The guide cannot help others search with this keyword, but must train with this keyword first. Another "Master" level guide helps the "Apprentice" guide train with this keyword, assuming the role of an infoseeker, and then evaluating the trainee's performance. Once the "Apprentice" level guide gets enough successful training sessions, that particular keyword is promoted to "Pro." If this is the guide's first keyword to go "Pro", then it simply means that the guide is now able to do real searches for $5 an hour of active search time. Once a guide reaches the "Master" level on any keyword, then they are able to train other guides on their keywords. In addition, a "Master" guide is able to sponsor others to join the ranks of the ChaCha guides, and receives 10% of the sponsored guide's earnings. Finally, there is the "Elite" level. The "Elite" level is reached by a guide going over "the threshold" (determined by ChaCha.) Once a guide reaches this level on a keyword, they are paid $10 an hour for active search time on "Elite" level keywords.