Twelve days ago ChaCha, a controversial search engine that uses humans to answer search queries, rolled out a mobile version of the service. Ask it anything via text message, and they’ll send you an answer in a few minutes.
I tried the service once to test it, and haven’t used it since. But today I received a text message from them saying “Ever wish you could actually know everything? Now you do. Just text another questions to 242242 (ChaCha) for the answer now.”
This is pure spam, sent without my request or permission. Text spam is horrid - not only does every message actually cost the recipient money, but you can’t specifically block specific addresses like you can with email.
Text spam is coming to the U.S. (and anyone who’s lived in Europe already knows all about it), but for a respectable, venture funded company to do this is inexcusable. For anyone who tried the service based on my post about it, I apologize.
That makes me mad. I remember those terrible days when I subscribed to a txt plan that only had 1000 in it, and I avoided trying ANYTHING for that reason!
I didnt want to use up my precious txts on spam, and have to pay $0.10 in/out after that thousand! (which I would every few months).
I was thinking about giving ChaCha a try, since I Have unlimited txting now, but if they are going to spam, Im not going to support that.
I don’t get mobile spam. What are they trying to achieve with it? Who is their target audience? Naive Grandmas and teenagers? I can tell you when I receive mobile spam I get really pissed of and would never buy or service advertised in the spam. So it’s a mystery to me why serious advertisers continue to pour money into spam.
@Tim
“A beautiful swan dive into the deadpool.”
Beautiful? I think they where kick’n and screaming
Looks like ChaCha has either a ton of low-class angel investors or they’ve spammed their own employees and searchslaves to post here with anti-Mike comments. Anybody get a reply from the email address posted above?
Then again, this type of thing hasn’t been fatal before, so maybe there’s hope for being the Plaxo of search engines. If they can get enough people to accept lower standards of behavior, why not? It works for Dr. Phil and Hugh Downs.
And just thinking about it, there are shades of Beacon here as well. “We can do whatever we want with whatever information you give to us or that we can acquire about you.” Real charming, guys.
jeez, here in india, many junk sms everyday… i would happily punch ambani or mittal, the big business heroes whose companies interrupt my day, day after day…. they say you can opt out, but it doesn’t work
ur a little baby Michael. Complaining about a text message. Come on.
@john doerr - “behaviour” - I didn’t know John was a Brit…
I don’t think it’s ChaCha’s fault if you pay for the incoming messages.
It’s the first time when i hear such a think can happen. In Europe i don’t think it’s possible.
@57: He’s not and neither am I
I’m a little further southeast….
@34: Mike - there are very specific, predefined ways to opt in/out of messaging campaigns here in the US - that’s the whole point - they should have included some specific verbage in the message to you.
So is this how mobile apps and services will be monetized? Will US mobile providers embrace this and encourage it? Scary and disruptive — and not the ‘good’ kind of disruptive.
I believe you can just reply with “Stop” to any such message which keeps you from receiving any further messages.
It is incredible to see how well this service answers questions on anything. Surprising that a single message would spark additional muckraking. But that is how Mike gets his readers so why would anyone be surprised?
Michael when were you in Europe last time? I lived in Denmark and Germany where I had mobile phones for more than 7 years now. Never received one single text msg that I didn’t ask for (not to mention calls, it’s actually illegal to call or txt random people and try to sell them stuff here) - but when I lived in the US, that was a different story! I pay $.1 for outgoing calls, $.04 for txt msg and have free incoming calls and msgs here in Denmark.
You can opt out of this, but, it is kind of complicated and just texting “stop” to a message like that will not do it. In fact, from the information I’m seeing, if you text “stop” to their 2244 or whatever no. it is you’re supposed to text it to, the message just gets sent to one of their sms guides who in no way has any power to stop the service! I’m not even sure there is a way to opt out at this early venture, at least not one that is easy.
Hey Michael Arrington (the author), if you HAVE THE TIME to let text-spam bother you, and actually affect your internal emotional state, then YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE, or at least GET MORE IMPORTANT THINGS IN YOUR LIFE TO WORRY ABOUT. Seriously, why did you waste our time with this article!
“Just text another questions”? What’s up with their bad grammer? Can anyone say Spell Checker?
My company SMobile (www.smobilesystems.com) makes a spam filter for mobile devices. We can block voice, sms, and MMS spam on the device, and it integrates with your contacts database.
I’ve never heard of Michael Arrington until I’ve heard about ChaCha. Nice publicity stunt, Mikey!
You know what all you have to do is text back to the number ’stop’ that’s rough. And it took me less then one minute to discover this because I bothered to go to the ChaCha web site. But since you don’t want to do any searching of answers for yourself perhaps you should keep ChaCha as contact on your phone….just thought.
You guys are complaining about one little text message? wow. If you would of read the site before sending the text, you would see that you just have to simply text STOP or CANCEL to 242242. Need to speak to someone? Well what do you know, there’s a toll free number clearly posted on the site as well. 1-800-820-0827. So before you guys go off of ONE PERSONS opinion, try the service yourself. I think you’ll be surprised.
BTW…Google ChaCha and see how many complaints there are about ChaCha. Oh look. This is the only one and it’s not even legit! Hmmmmm
http://www.chacha.com/textChaCha#/
I’ve had great experience with this service. I am impressed with its accuracy and speed. Don’t know why this guy is so concerned about one message. We can judge this on our own.
sms http://smspoint.googlepages.com/
sebd sms worldwide http://smspoint.googlepages.com/
send sms worldwide http://smspoint.googlepages.com/
This article is garbage. How is ChaCha controversial? I love it, they can find anything. I wouldn’t expect someone who’s fooled by the novelty of an Iphone to appreciate the genius and convenience of such a great service…
If you file a complaint with the FCC, they (ChaCha) have to respond to it and remedy the grievance. It’s quick and easy (I’m told) by heading to their forum:
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html
Hey Michael Arrington, I bet if you read the TOS from ChaCha you accepted getting text ads from them. Read the fine print before you go off in a tangent.
As Old as this is, anyone that stumbles upon this, as a guide working for ChaCha, you simply text the word STOP to 242242, and ChaCha stops all texts.