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ChaCha (search engine) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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ChaCha
ChaCha logo.png
Industry Internet
Founded September 1, 2006 (2006-09-01)
Founder(s) Scott A. Jones and Brad Bostic
Headquarters Carmel, Indiana, United States
Services Web search, SMS-based question answering
Employees 56[1]
Website chacha.com

ChaCha is a search engine which specializes in its 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, United States.

Contents

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[edit] Name

Search Wiktionary

 Look up 尋 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

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]

[edit] History

The 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 search

ChaCha 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 search

In January 2008 ChaCha launched a new SMS that allowed users to ask questions and receive answers via text messaging.[13] 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.

During ChaCha's initial start up in 2008, Google controlled 100% of the total market for text-based mobile searching. According to a Nielson Mobile Report, in the third quarter of 2009, ChaCha's text-messaging service surpassed Google in text messaging traffic.

[edit] Voice search

ChaCha 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 marketing

In 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.[14] Fox News reported that ChaCha planned by mid 2008 to charge $5–$10 per month once 10 queries was exceeded[15] (as of December 26, 2009 no additional fees have been implemented).[16]

In November, 2008, ChaCha launched its SMS Advertising Platform at ad:tech New York.[17][18]

In March 2009, ChaCha reported 30 million "impressions per month" and "3.6 million users" since January 2008.[19][20] An ESPN article stated that ChaCha gets about 1,000,000 questions each day according to their tipsheets.[21] A former Yahoo executive opened a New York office for ChaCha in hopes of increasing advertising.[1][22]

[edit] Guides

ChaCha uses independent contractors it calls Guides.[23] There are four main types of guides: Expeditors, Generalists, Specialists and Transcribers.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26] 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.[27] 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.[28]

Guides are paid on a per-query basis, with those hired after December 1, 2009 earning "points" for each search or task they complete. These points are converted to cash at the end of each month, based on a share of a dedicated compensation pool.[29] The pool for December of 2009 was $50,000.[30] This was increased to $75,000 in January of 2010,[31] $100,000 in February,[32] and $125,000 in March.[33] Expediters and Transcribers earn 2 points per completed session, [34] while Generalist/Specialist Guides earn 8.[35] Those hired before December 1, 2009 have the option to work for cash: $0.02 per session for Expediters, $0.03 per session for Transcribers, and $0.10 to $0.20 per session for Generalist/Specialist Guides.

[edit] Press

The 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.[36]

In April 2009, ESPN's Rick Reilly spent some time working for ChaCha for an article on ESPN The Magazine. Reilly says:

ChaCha, as most people under 103 know, is the highly addictive mobile answer service that responds to any query you send (text "ChaCha" or "242242") with a real answer from a real person, usually within three minutes, for free. Is this a great world or what?[21]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c "ChaCha Streamlines to Become More Efficient" March 18, 2009 by InsideINdianaBusiness.com
  2. ^ , 2009, http://www.chacha.com/question/how-did-your-company-get-the-name-chacha, retrieved 2009-05-24 
  3. ^ ChaCha press release, BusinessWire, November 6, 2006.
  4. ^ "ChaCha secures $6 million in private funding from Jeff Bezos, Rod Canion, Jack Gill and others", ChaCha press release, January 8, 2007.
  5. ^ "Review: ChaCha's Text-Message Search Engine" Thursday, January 17, 2008 at FoxNews.com quoting Candace Choi with AP
  6. ^ "ChaCha Secures $12M in Financing, Reduces Staff" by Tricia Duryee of mocoNews.net on Wednesday, March 18, 2009 quoting "peHUB"
  7. ^ "ChaCha Secures $12M in Equity Financing and Reduces Costs | ChaCha". Partners.chacha.com. 2009-03-17. http://partners.chacha.com/2009/03/17/chacha-secures-12m-in-equity-financing-and-reduces-costs/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  8. ^ "ChaCha Secures $12M in Financing, Reduces Staff" By Andrew Berg WirelessWeek.com - March 18, 2009
  9. ^ "ChaCha Cuts Staff, Salaries To Make $12 Million In New Capital Last Longer" Washington Post March 18, 2009 quoting mocoNews.net
  10. ^ a b "One day searchers may quit Googling and start ChaCha-ing". Usatoday.Com. 2006-09-06. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2006-09-06-google-chacha_x.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  11. ^
  12. ^ a b "ChaCha Ditches Guided Search Model. I Love To Hate This Startup", Techcrunch.com, March 31, 2008.
  13. ^ "ChaCha gives you answers via text message", News.com from CNET, January 3, 2008.
  14. ^ "ChaCha Cofounder Describes How the Company Is Making Money", U.S. News & World Report, August 8, 2008
  15. ^ "Review: ChaCha's Text-Message Search Engine" Thursday, January 17, 2008 at FoxNews.com quoting Candace Choi with AP
  16. ^ "ChaCha Content - Usage Limit". Content.chacha.com. 2009-05-07. http://content.chacha.com/MonthlyUsageInfo. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  17. ^ "Akamai, ChaCha Announce Parties at New York ad:tech : ad:tech blog". Adtechblog.com. 2008-10-22. http://www.adtechblog.com/blog/detail/akamai-chacha-announce-parties-at-new-york-adtech/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  18. ^ "Podcast released: Our ad:tech “Making Mobile Work” workshop". Partners.chacha.com. http://partners.chacha.com/blog/index.php/2008/11/24/podcast-released-our-adtech-making-mobile-work-workshop/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  19. ^ ""ChaCha press release March 17, 2009"". Partners.chacha.com. 2009-03-17. http://partners.chacha.com/2009/03/17/chacha-secures-12m-in-equity-financing-and-reduces-costs/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  20. ^ "ChaCha Secures $12M in Financing, Reduces Staff" By Andrew Berg in WirelessWeek.com - March 18, 2009
  21. ^ a b "Reilly: ChaCha has all the answers - unless I'm on the other end - ESPN The Magazine". Sports.espn.go.com. 2009-10-05. http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=4088415. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  22. ^ "ChaCha's CEO, Scott Jones, on layoffs, new funding and sales staff increases" March 18, 2009 audio by InsideINdianaBusiness.com
  23. ^ "ChaCha Guides FAQ". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/index.php/faqs/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  24. ^ "Guide Roles". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/index.php/guide-roles/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  25. ^ "Expeditor|ChaCha". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/index.php/guide-roles/expeditor/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  26. ^ "Generalist|ChaCha". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/index.php/guide-roles/generalist/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  27. ^ "Specialist|ChaCha". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/index.php/guide-roles/specialist/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  28. ^ "Transcriber|ChaCha". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/index.php/guide-roles/transcriber/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  29. ^ "FAQ’s | ChaCha". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/faqs/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  30. ^ Friend, Esther (2009-11-25). "Announcing GuideShare Phase 2! Begins Dec. 1 | Official ChaCha Guide Blog". Guideblog.chacha.com. http://guideblog.chacha.com/2009/11/25/announcing-guideshare-phase-2-begins-dec-1/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  31. ^ Friend, Esther (2010-01-05). "January GuideShare Pool | Official ChaCha Guide Blog". Guideblog.chacha.com. http://guideblog.chacha.com/2010/01/05/january-guideshare-pool/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  32. ^ Friend, Esther (2010-02-01). "February GuideShare Pool - One More Thing! | Official ChaCha Guide Blog". Guideblog.chacha.com. http://guideblog.chacha.com/2010/02/01/february-guideshare-pool-one-more-thing/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  33. ^ Keller, Justin (2010-03-09). "Top 25 GuideShare Guides’ Earnings Doubled in March | Official ChaCha Guide Blog". Guideblog.chacha.com. http://guideblog.chacha.com/2010/03/09/top-25-guideshare-guides-earnings-doubled-in-march/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  34. ^ "Expeditor | ChaCha". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/guide-roles/expeditor/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  35. ^ "Generalist | ChaCha". Becomeaguide.chacha.com. http://becomeaguide.chacha.com/guide-roles/generalist/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 
  36. ^ "If You Have ChaCha and a Cellphone, You Have Answers | Walt Mossberg | Personal Technology | AllThingsD". Ptech.allthingsd.com. 2008-04-24. http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20080424/if-you-have-chacha-and-a-cellphone-you-have-answers/. Retrieved 2010-04-14. 

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