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ChaCha - The Future of Search Engines

Published by Sunny on January 8th, 2007 in Internet, News - Views

ChaCha, a new “smart” search engine powered by human intelligence seems to be promising.

Started by Scott Jones and Brad Bostic, ChaCha boasts off that they ‘make it easy for visitors to find exactly what they were looking for without having to wade through millions of results’. And that is exactly what they do.

ChaCha - The Human Powered Search Engine from Scott Jones and Brad Bostic
The current implementation of ChaCha offers a combination of automation and people-powered search. The results can be organized by a vertical, like images or news. Also it has a set of related searches. But by far the most interesting and unusual aspect of ChaCha is its people-powered search. If you do not find a search result satisfying, you can ask a Guide to help you with the query. This is where ChaCha is different from other search engines. ChaCha’s Guides are real human beings! They are here to help you with your search queries, no matter how dumb they are.

ChaCha’s Guides maybe really helpful, but they are really annoying at times. For instance, they just go blank for quite sometime without uttering a word. And at times, the search results they provide look straight out of ChaCha’s normal search.

If your looking forward to perform a weird search, or don’t have any person to chat online, or just short of activities, I recommend you head to ChaCha and search with a Guide. The conversations you can make is hilarious. However, don’t expect your chat partner to be doing this for fun, each Guide is paid $5 per hour of search (some even upto $10 an hour). For that kind of money, who wouldn’t want to be a Search Guide! Just incase you would like to be a ChaCha Guide, don’t fear - you can signup now :) According to VincentG, a Guide at ChaCha, the number of registered Guides has topped 15,000! Vincent made $330 in his first month!

ChaCha has raised $6 million in a round led by Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Rod Canion, founding CEO of Compaq, and Maven Ventures partner Jack Gill also contributed to it.

Like I said before, the Guide Logs are hilarious! If you have a funny Guide log, then post it here so that we all can have a laugh. I leave you with a funny Guide log that took place between Omkar and Wendy:

Status: Looking for a guide .
Status: Connected to guide: WendyR
WendyR: Welcome to ChaCha!
Omkar: hi
WendyR: Hi there. I will be helping with your search.
Omkar: i am looking for osama bin laden
WendyR: his location?
Omkar: yeah
Omkar: present location
WendyR: If you find it let me know
Omkar: i didnt find him there
Omkar: anyways
Omkar: well
Omkar: what about world peace
WendyR: There is a world peace religion
WendyR: Thanks for coming to ChaCha! Give me a moment while I do all your searching for you!
WendyR: Please RATE ME. Thanks for using ChaCha.
Status: Session ended.

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11 Responses to “ChaCha - The Future of Search Engines”

El Coordinatore Says:
January 8th, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Submitted by neelakantankk:

Status: Looking for a guide .
Status: Connected to guide: TheresaB
TheresaB: Welcome to ChaCha!
TheresaB: hi how are you today
TheresaB: Please be more specific as to what you’re looking for on this topic.
You: hello
You: Chip-india’s SysOp is missing
You: Can u help me find him?
TheresaB: let me see what I can dig up
You: he’s dead and buried?
You: that explains it.
You: need help? I can handle a shovel.
TheresaB: ok I will be right back with you
You: no. don’t go.
You: i’m lonely.
You: I love you.
You:
Transfer: You are being transfered to another guide who can help you search even better!
Looking for guide .
Status: Connected to guide: DennyF
DennyF: Welcome to ChaCha!
You: WTH. r u male or female
You: ?
DennyF: male
You: damn.
You: Thanks, I’m done.
Status: Session ended
El Coordinatore Says:
January 8th, 2007 at 5:11 pm
Submitted by Sensationalboy Azhar

Status: Looking for a guide .
Status: Connected to guide: Rose W
Rose W: Welcome to ChaCha!
You: hi rose
Rose W: hello
You: watcha doin
Rose W: what can i help you today.
You: u like football
Rose W: nothing just working
Rose W: =)
Rose W: alittle
You: good
You: what do i do now
Rose W: do you need something to searched
You: i didnt get you
You: u understand hindi
Transfer: You are being transfered to another guide who can help you search even better!
Looking for guide .
Status: Connected to guide: TracyG
TracyG: Welcome to ChaCha!
TracyG: Hi!
TracyG: what can i do for you?
You: u kno hindi
TracyG: what you talking about?
You: im talkin abt hindi
You: arre chirkut
You: hindi nahi malum
You: gadhhe
TracyG: I dont understand,its like your talking a different language
You: no its english
You: native english
TracyG: maybe your spellint isnt right
Transfer: You are being transfered to another guide who can help you search even better!
Looking for guide .
Status: Connected to guide: LindaQ
LindaQ: Welcome to ChaCha!
El Coordinatore Says:
January 8th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Posted by Whally

JasonK: Hi there. I will be helping with your search.
You: Hi there. I’m looking for some internet
You: Argh. Sorry, my chat box keeps cutting out
You: I’m looking for this internet
JasonK: There you go
JasonK: They have it on wikipedia
JasonK: Did you need anything else?
You: Um, there’s this internet
JasonK: That’s it right there
You: help me find someone to hold me through the night
JasonK: Sure
El Coordinatore Says:
January 8th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Guide log by Stoat Box:

Status: Looking for a guide …
Status: Connected to guide: PaulaD

PaulaD: Hi there. I will be helping with your search.
You: I’m looking for a picture of two men racing each other through a cactus patch.
PaulaD: Hi, How can I help?
You: I’m sure I saw the image on Google Image Search about three months ago
PaulaD: Okay, let me look
You: Although I may have just dreamed it as I’ve been taking a lot of sleeping pills lately
You: Incidentally what’s the best thing to take sleeping pills with so far I’ve been taking them with a stiff whisky and a few hours reading in my smoking jacket.

Transfer: You are being transfered to another guide who can help you search even better!

Looking for guide …

Status: Connected to guide: LillianV
LillianV: Hi there. I will be helping with your search.
LillianV: Hello!
LillianV: How can I help you?
You: Hello
LillianV: Hi
You: I’m trying to find a picture of two men running through a cactus patch
You: One of them has a smile on his face
LillianV: That may be difficult, but let me try, hold on please
You: The other has a look of despair, like if a lover has left him or he missed an episode of smash hit comedy “Family Guy”
LillianV: I do apologize, but there are no images of anything like this
You: That’s ok. Can I ask for another search?
LillianV: Certainly
You: Do you know if Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka beat Uwe “Raging” Boll in the boxing match they had a while ago?
LillianV: Let me search that for you
You: Please be quick my captors are getting angry
You: Can you also please search “Stoat Box” for me I’m trying to meet him to give him his third of the Triforce thanks.
LillianV: Can I find anything else for you?
You: “Stoat Box” I think he’s a Russian snooker player.
LillianV: That’s all I have on that
You: Oh, I found the picture I was looking for, turns out I drew it on my arm.
LillianV: Thanks for using ChaCha! I hope you had a great search experience!
You: Thanks anyway ChaCha.com you’ve brought the web closer together
LillianV: Please RATE ME. Thanks for using ChaCha.
Status: Session ended.
Omkar Says:
January 8th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
lol !

chacha is better for tp than searching something !!
neelakantankk Says:
January 8th, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Its great to fool around. If you’re bored, you know where to go
El Coordinatore Says:
January 9th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Submitted by Kunal Goutham:

Status: Connected to guide: DustinG
DustinG: Welcome to ChaCha!
DustinG: Hello.
DustinG: Welcome to ChaCha!
DustinG: Hello.
You: how r u
You: hello
You: r u there
You: looks like u r sleeping
DustinG: hello
DustinG: hello
DustinG: sry iwas afk
DustinG: nah i was taking a leak
DustinG: so watcha searching for
You: ok i want some goods link for macromedia components tutoruial
DustinG: Please hold while I search.
You: k
DustinG: eh
DustinG: You mean Macromedia Flash?
You: ya
DustinG: eh
DustinG: You mean Macromedia Flash?
DustinG: compenents?
You: ya
DustinG: ?
You: like action script
DustinG: k
DustinG: ugh this one wont work on the results adder for some reason

Edit (El Coordinatore): This was kinda lame, but heck…..
Crono Says:
January 30th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
Status: Connecting …
Status: Looking for a guide …
Status: Connected to guide: AngelaH
AngelaH: Welcome to ChaCha!
AngelaH: Hello!
You: Hola!
AngelaH: What info on autos can I help you find?
You: Deseo los coches de Ford.
You: ¿Puede usted ayudarme?
You: ¿Hola?
You: ¿Está usted allí?
You: Hello?
AngelaH: I am sorry I do not speak Spanish
You: Neither do I
AngelaH: Ok then again, in English please, what can I help you find?
You: Thanks, I’m done.

Using babelfish!
Moomo Says:
January 30th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Status: Looking for a guide …
Ring: …
Status: Connected to guide: VincentG
VincentG: Welcome to ChaCha!
You: Hello
VincentG: Hi there
You: I’m looking for pictures of my friend Jonah
You: he has black hair
VincentG: lol
You: and green eyes
You: and a necklace
You: can you help me?
VincentG: sure, I’ll give it a shot You: Thanks
You: OK
You: Got to go
You: See you on Friday!
VincentG: lol k
You: Thanks, I’m done.

Lame too!
Sunny Says:
January 31st, 2007 at 10:46 am
LOL, nice ones.

@Moomo: I’ve had a chat with VincentG, and he was pretty helpful and answered my questions. He wasn’t like the other Guides who are usually serious.. (and did you find the picture you were looking for? lol)
Sameer Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 12:12 am
WOW..