A relatively new offering is removing these limitations and more, by adopting an old-school, de-automated solution. ChaCha is a free service that works on all cell phones, allowing users the flexibility to either text a query or call in and ask via voice. For anyone who's ever been stuck without phone web capabilities and had to call a friend or family member to request a Google search, ChaCha's model will be all too familiar:
The service works by routing your questions to one of 10,000 hired "guides" -- students, stay-at-home parents, retirees and others -- who look up the questions on the Web and reply. They get paid 20 cents per answer.
Naturally, these guides vary as to their speed and accuracy. If you don't like the answers they give you, or you want related information, you can call back or reply to the text message with a follow-up question. For instance, after learning which pitcher had won for Boston, I asked who lost the game for New York. I was quickly informed it was Phil Hughes.
While clearly not a high-tech scalable solution, ChaCha does successfully solve problems with existing services -- it allows natural language requests and gives users the choice of format between voice and text. It doesn't know your location without you disclosing it, and the quality of responses is sometimes inconsistent, but it represents a real attempt to respond to consumer needs rather than imposing a service handcuffed by technological limitations. I will be interested to see what this or other companies do to try and capture these same solutions while providing a cheaper, automated service.
ChaCha is free -- to use, dial 800-2chacha (800-224-2242) and state your question. If you'd rather text it, send to "ChaCha," or 242242. I know what I'll try next time I'm stranded with my non-web-enabled phone and a burning trivia question...
1 comment:
This is an interesting idea, but I think it is good that you have emphasized that it is not a scalable solution.
Furthermore, it is not the low-tech nature of ChaCha that makes it so useful, but rather the service it provides, and this service can certainly be automated.
This article was just in the Washington Post.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/24/AR2008042400055.html
It highlights companies like ChaCha, but also other such as Microsoft's Tell Me and Yahoo's One Search which both use automated voice recognition software in order to deliver search results.
And while it is true that these have their limitations and may not be as discerning as the human driven ChaCha, the article points out that ChaCha can also produce confusing results to queries.
In the end, I would put my money on the automated and scalable versions of mobile search.
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