ChaCha (search engine)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| ChaCha | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | |
| Founded |  Carmel, Indiana (September 1, 2006) |
| Headquarters | Carmel, Indiana, USA |
| Key people | Scott A. Jones, founder Brad Bostic, founder |
| Industry | Internet |
| Services | web search, SMS-based question answering |
| 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 in Carmel, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis.
The alpha version of the search engine was launched on September 1, 2006. A beta version was introduced on November 6, 2006.[1] The service reported 20,000 guides had registered by year end.[2] 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[3]
The guide-less search function is based on 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.
Contents |
[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 can apply on the website or be invited by a guide who has reached the master level. 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 the site not normally accessible 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. Finally, the Knowledge Base (or KB) contains dozens of articles useful for guides.
[edit] textChaCha
On January 3, 2008 ChaCha launched a new textChaCha service that allows users to ask questions and receive answers via text message[4] Unlike similar mobile search services ChaCha doesn't require special character codes to get results. A plain sentence question will get an answer along with a link to the answer source.
[edit] callChaCha
callChaCha launched its beta version on April 1, 2008, while discontinuing its less effective guided web search. Users can call 1-800-2-CHACHA and ask a question after the prompt. The question will then be transcribed into an SMS query. The answer then will be received by the caller in a text message.
[edit] Also see
[edit] References
- ^ ChaCha press release, BusinessWire, November 6, 2006.
- ^ http://www.chacha.com/press/chacha_funding-01-08-07.pdf "ChaCha secures $6 million in private funding from Jeff Bezos, Rod Canion, Jack Gill and others", ChaCha press release, January 8, 2007.
- ^ "ChaCha Raises $6 Million In Development Funds", by InternetFinancialNews
- ^ "ChaCha gives you answers via text message", News.com from CNET, January 3, 2008.
