Lonely? Want someone to talk to? Go to ChaCha, a new search engine, and talk to a guide real time about your search. As long as you remain somewhat on topic, I’ve found that the guide will talk to you as long as you like.
There are two ways to search on ChaCha. They have a more traditional search engine that has good but not deep results. But the cool service is guide driven, via an instant message screen on the page. While I found that the results were not nearly as good as Google, it is a lot of fun to talk to the guides.
The company, which is based in Indianapolis, announced a $6 million round of financing today that included an investment by Jeff Bezos through his Bezos Expeditions fund (the same fund that invested in 37 Signals). This is a perfect fit for Amazon’s Mechanical Turk product, and I expect the company will be using that service at some point for the search guides.
While it isn’t clear to me how the company can make money inserting human labor into the search process, they now have at least $6 million to burn while trying. If you’d like to be a ChaCha guide, you can apply here.
As an aside, ChaCha has a linking policy that forbids linking to any page other than the home page. I’m not sure what misguided lawyer told them to do this, but I’ve blatantly violated that policy in this post, including by linking to the policy. Note to ChaCha – links aren’t bad and this policy isn’t enforceable.
Update: Here’s a post from Michael Wales, one of the ChaCha guides.
I can’t help but notice the similarity in branding between Lala.com, ChaCha.com and of course Coca Cola.
That’s not even taking into account the wierdness of their names:) Chacha actually means “uncle” in Hindi. And Lala is a proper firstname.
-Zaid
(wanna be a beta tester? http://cardboar...wanna_be_a.html)
sounds cool…I used a certain search engine where there is an actual person talking to you and performing actions according to your search..don’t remember the name exactly..thought this was it at first but it’s not.
I just became a guide (a couple of days ago) and you get to pick keywords which you are good at. I think it is a great idea for many idiots out there that don’t really know what they are looking for; they basically can find an informed person who is able to help them out.
Everything really is cyclical isn’t it?
Just when we develop huge server farms that will take the repetitive labor away from trivial tasks then someone decides to humanize it again and inject people into the mix. I just don’t see how this could scale well at all. If they grow as big as Google how do you support that with human chat?
Interesting, but ultimately doomed I fear.
Wow, great business they’ve got here. I tried it out:
—-
Search words: rednecks having sex on top of a bear video
Status: Looking for a guide …
Status: Connected to guide: DonaldH
DonaldH: Welcome to ChaCha!
You: hello donald!
DonaldH: Hello!
You: I saw a video a while ago. Two people shot a bear out of a tree and then had sex on top of it.
You: I think the title was “rednecks have sex on a bear” but I can’t seem to find it.
DonaldH: my name is Donald i’ll be seraching for you!
You: thanks. I really can’t remember what video site it was on. not youtube… something else. Maybe metacafe?
DonaldH: Ok great I’ll search!
You: any luck?
You: hello?
DonaldH: While I am searching, have you had a chance to look at the relevant links at the side of the page?
DonaldH: Hello
You: yes, but they don’t have the video I’m looking for.
DonaldH: Still searching
DonaldH: Are these results sufficient?
You: no
DonaldH: Still searching
DonaldH: May i transfer you?
You: transfer me where?
You: nevermind, I found it on google. would you like me to send it to you?
DonaldH: To another guide more knowable to your suject!
You: oh, okay… sure.
DonaldH: Thank You!
Transfer: You are being transfered to another guide who can help you search even better!
Looking for guide …
Status: Connected to guide: alysonj
alysonj: Welcome to ChaCha!
You: hello alyson!
alysonj: Hi, what can I help you with today
You: Thanks, I’m done.
Status: Session ended.
—-
Cliffs: This reminds me of the stupid kind of ideas what would get handed millions of dollars in the 90’s.
Tom – is that an actual transcript? Did the guide really mention Google?
I won’t throw this idea in the bin yet. But for sure ChaCha needs to work more on carving out a niche userbase of folks new to the PC or the very elderly or the very young. Some niche might just adopt it and spread it by WOM.
But I doubt ChaCha can bank on techies adopting it and then passing it on to nontechies. In this case it would have to be from nontechies to techies.
-Zaid
I’ve tried ChaCha a few times, but I had a few people who are less proficient at web searching give it a shot and tell me what they thought.
Even they said this was too slow of a process and takes away the point of search engines. Instant, Fast, You’re in Control.
Nice people over at ChaCha no doubt, but I’m not sure if this one will catch on.
One more thought: If i could call up someone from my mobile and they did a search for me, THAT might be handy.
Mike,
Yes, that’s an actual transcript… but that was me who said I found it on Google. The search results they were sending were completely irrelevant. I’m surprised they even continued the conversation given what my search was for.
My wife has been a ChaCha guide for a little while. She’s made well over $500 so far (yes, they pay the guides – I didn’t see this mentioned).
Oh, and they do pay. You cash out whenever you want, $2 fee per cash out.
Fashion Industry Ceo,
Was it Webhelp.com? I think they used to do human assisted searches…
@Michael Arrington
Using Google is common for ChaCha Guides. In the ChaCha Guide program Google appears for every single search category – you click it and it will show you the results.
The Guide then just find the one he thinks suits you best – highlights some text on the page, then clicks “Add Result” and you see it on your screen.
@Tim:
How much do they pay guides? And on what is payment based?
@Paul
Guides are paid based on how many searches they perform successfully. The minimum is 67 cents per search and guides make on average between $5 and $10 per hour.
There is no way these guides are real people. AIMBot was doing this years ago…
The payment is based on time spent during a search. That’s why they’ll talk to you forever – it’s not that you’re cool
. The rate is based on a few different levels, depending on experience. You can make anywhere from $5 to $12 an hour or so if you had constant searches, which doesn’t usually happen.
My wife makes $50 to $100 a week just doing it during regular web surfing times though. It has its busy times and not-so-busy times.
There are good guides and bad guides – and good searchers and bad searchers. There are times that you can really help someone find something. Often times though, it’s full of prank searches (you can imagine) and lots of “are you real????” searches.
It won’t last. She cashes out at every $50 thinking it’ll bust any day. You never know I guess.
I think ChaCha is a neat idea but it may not be economically feasible if it keeps paying 67 cents or more per help search.
@Jimmy James
They’re real. While software could certainly do something similar, the low quality of answers you get on a regular basis should clue you in to the fact that you are most certainly interfacing with some good old fashioned wetware.
@SearhTheWeb2
Well – they have more than enough advertisements to pay it off. Especially when the first 5 results of most searches are advertisement (not the guided searches). Look closely and you’ll see ‘Spnsored by’ – I wonder how many of those get clicked.
The genius, if any, of Chacha is that they’ve created a semi engaging platform to deliver not only arguably better results through the guides, but also to engage you with ridiculously high CPM video ads. With the CPM’s being paid out today to highly focused inventory, affording the guides might be pretty simple.
based here in indy… they are doa man…
I saw a local newspaper article about them today, surfed their blog… they plan to start paying people to refer their toolbar…
hmmm
I’m thinking this service is not valuable to anyone with even minimal tech-savvy. Yet, I’m imagining this service being a HUGE plus to my 83-year-old grandmother who, bless her heart, attempts to use the computer to do something other than just check her email on AOL.
@Joey
Yeah – Guides get $1 per month for each person they convince to install and use the ChaCha toolbar. I have the ChaCha Guide program installed – I can attest to the quality of that software – it sucks.
I won’t even let Google install a toolbar – definitely won’t let ChaCha.
But yeah – $1 per month per person – and the top 111 Guides that refer the most people get stock options.
Is the money that they are burning on guides coming from the VC funding? How do they plan on monetizing the service when each search costs more than a standard CPC ad?
As for the cellular phone search market – Awesome idea! While I won’t use ChaCha for desktop search, I would definitely use it for mobile search. Being able to either call or type something on my keypad and then have one relevant result would be pretty sweet.
> You: nevermind, I found it on google. would you like me to send it to you?
That sums it up.
Why would anybody use ChaCha?
Drew:
The Auburn help line is such a human search engine. 334-844-4244
I found out about it last summer watching a Braves game and trying to figure out how many wins Smoltz had with my phone browser. My buddy just called it up and got a person to search via computer.
Go figure.
@adam
If the only geniune use of this search is for people that can’t use google (i.e. your 83 year old grandmother), I don’t see how their ad revenue can possibly be sustainable as these would clearly not be the kind of people that will complete transactions online.
If this company can actually make money with this model IMO it’s a sign of a very badly bloated ad market, not a good business idea.
> If the only genuine use of this search is for people that can’t use google (i.e. your 83 year old grandmother),
IMHO it is often quite difficult for non-tech-savvy people to chat. It would be better if you could go to their website, click “call a guide”, talk to the guide by phone/skype/sip/whatever (voice) and the results would appear on your desktop.
Anyway, I would rather teach my grandma to use Google. I have found the chacha results totally irrelevant most of the time (but the questions were tricky).
Tom,
If an average pay is below the minimum wage, how do you expect the quality of answer?
@Joey,
“based here in indy… they are doa man…”
Yea, you are right. Anyone not on the west coast is screwed. Well, guess all programmers in the midwest should close up their computers and start farming corn. Them thar hicks can’t speakish the english and darn well shore can’t program any thar language.
/sarcasm
I have more fun talking to SmarterChild on AIM:
Amit (6:42:04 PM): shut up
SmarterChild (6:42:04 PM): You shut up.
Amit (6:42:10 PM): you’re an idiot
SmarterChild (6:42:10 PM): Uh… Are you trying to insult me?
I tried it out – the guide ignored me for about 15 mins.
I have an idea on what they are doing. They use the guides to create human entered (with no spam) results for most search terms.
Once they have tons of data matching search terms and search results (which are all graded incidentally by the user) ChaCha then stop paying the guides (or reduce their payments)… and use the core data they retrieved to create an good search engine and results set. This does scale. No humans required at that time (except to keep the results pruned)
All the press coverage about Wikiasari a couple of weeks back had angles relating to user generated search results….. and how to get it to scale… well looks like Cha Cha has the answer – maybe?
All they are trying to do is stall you for as long as possible so they can shove ads down your throat.
I think this idea has some potential but the size they have anticipated to grow is just way too big for the search traffic they are going to receive. The linking policy is absurd too. I think in the end a downsizing will end up happening but the company will keep going for those who either don’t want to search or who can’t. Only time will tell.
Kris Karkoski
They should use some of the money to get a new (and original) logo
I have just tried to search some keyword related to technology in this site.
I really wanna tesify the result by “Search With Guide” and how easy and convinent it is. However I am disappointed since there wasn’t any answer at all beside the first greeting.
I don’t think that all query is guided sufficiently by people but there is some methodlogy to inform alternative because I couldn’t find any proceeding at such situation.
Pretty helpful and friendly in my conversation. Not sure that this can possibly last, but I know a few times when I was absolutely unable to find what I needed. Here is the transcript:
Status: Looking for a guide …
Just a moment please. I thought that was a very exciting development 
Status: Connected to guide: KarenB
KarenB: Welcome to ChaCha!
KarenB: Please be more specific as to what you’re looking for on this topic.
You: Modern study on cloning that examines both sides of the story from a reputable sourcew ould be great
Transfer: You are being transfered to another guide who can help you search even better!
Looking for guide …
Status: Connected to guide: MelissaB
MelissaB: Welcome to ChaCha!
MelissaB: Hello
You: Hi!
MelissaB: What can I find for you on this subject?
You: I am looking for an article from a reputable soruce that provides a comprehensive exmaination of the cloning/stem cell research debate
MelissaB: ok Just one moment please
You: Ah, very nice. Today on the news I saw an article about a recent development that didn’t involve embryos. Any info on that?
MelissaB: Yes!
MelissaB: Is there anything else on this topic I can find for you today?
You: Ah, perfect! Just a quick question: do you work directly for ChaCha then?
MelissaB: We are technically independent contractors I believe
good luck.
I envision a “Clerks 2″ scenario where most search terms are entered by dudes like Randal who are looking for a donkey show or high quality ass-to-mouth content. To cater to this demographic, perhaps there should be two enhancements to the service:
1. Ability to request a guide of a specific gender
2. See a picture of your guide (to make finding MILFs easier)
P.S. If your mom is seeking part-time employment, I would not recommend sending her this opportunity.
I’m all for human-powered search (I’m the founder of Bessed, a new human-powered site with a very different model), but Cha-Cha seems like it simply slows you down in your search. If you want something difficult to find AND find a guide who has specific knowledge in addition to his/her ability to quickly search Google, that’s useful. But the quality of the different guides has to be all over the board, so most searchers would end up frustrated.
Using it for mobile would be interesting, though. Something like the Free-411 maybe—you call 1-800-cha-chaa to ask your question and they make you listen to a 15-second ad before giving you the search results you want. On second thought, maybe not.
BoomShaker – good ideas. Look for webcams next.
LOL. This is such a dumb concept. No words to describe how stupid this is. And it won’t scale. And oh, it’s so f**king dumb…
As Michael just wrote… a good gimmick may be a site with cams.com-like chicks sitting in a room all day half naked helping you find stuff online.. Or porn-guided browsing. LOL. Shit this idea is good. I think I’ll be coding it all night. hahaha
Hehe – someone bought http://chachapranks.com/ already.
@Michael: yo man, can you pay some Indian 5 bucks to code something quick that will place a cookie with the Name/Mail information at the comment section? My name is really long to be trying it each time
http://img141.i...untitledol0.png
gotta love their memory…
And yes, this is real:
Status: Looking for a guide …
Status: Connected to guide: RichardK
RichardK: Welcome to ChaCha!
RichardK: Hello
You: Hi
RichardK: What would you like to know about chacha guides and search engines
You: I’m trying to figure out if ChaCha guides use Google for their searches when trying to help people, or if they actually use ChaCha
RichardK: Hmm well I use ChaCha for common searches, but Google for really hard to find stuff, since we are guides we then can categorize those websites so now ChaCha will come up with them
You: cool, thanks!
RichardK: So we sort of steal the best from google…
Well I suspect the pranks are going to be getting more outrageous and creative. I started a thread on the forum for people to post theirs.
http://forums.t...9&tstart=0
You didn’t imply so, but I just want to be clear that mine wasn’t a prank. I was curious, and I think the info about ‘categorizing those websites’ is interesting.