I recently learned about ChaCha, a human-search service similar to Yahoo Answers and the now-defunct Google Answers. This still-in-beta site has "thousands of guides" available to discuss your search question via online chat and then deliver web sites that match your information need – imagine the love child of Google and a very harried reference librarian.
This means that the Guide, as ChaCha calls its searchers, has about 30 seconds to process your question and then start feeding web sites to you. I gave it a whirl with a question I had just researched myself. I was connected to a Guide whose ChaCha profile, I later saw, is:
Hello everyone. I am a fulltime homemaker. My husband is a retired Toledo, Ohio firefighter. I have 3 grown sons and 2 absolutely awesome grandchildren. ChaCha rocks!
Her areas of expertise range from American Idol to arthritis, diets, gossip, Toys R Us, and Wikipedia. This is not confidence-inspiring. (If you're not happy with the guide who initially takes your query, you can ask for another guide, but you can't request a specific guide.)
OK… Here's the transcript of our conversation, with her name changed.
ChaCha guide: Welcome to ChaCha!
MEB: Hi. I'm looking for examples of good corporate customer-loyalty programs.
ChaCha guide: searching
[Displays summaries of three sites, from an unspecified search-engine search]
MEB: No, these are companies that offer loyalty program packages TO COMPANIES. I'm looking for examples of companies that have good customer-loyalty programs. For example, Chico's (women's clothing store) is known for its customers' fierce loyalty. I'm looking for similar examples.
ChaCha guide: ok, let me see what I can do
ChaCha guide: Not finding much the other way around
ChaCha guide: but still searching
ChaCha guide: I recatagorized in hopes of finding something
MEB: Hmmmm. The third site you sent me just shows a discussion of someone who's unhappy with cell phone companies. I'm looking for companies with GOOD customer loyalty.
ChaCha guide: still searching
ChaCha guide: I keep rewording it in hopes of finding some sites
ChaCha guide: I am not finding a list of companies, just how to reward their customers, like this
ChaCha guide: shoot, not my appolication is messing up
ChaCha guide: Thank you for using ChaCha!
Status: Session ended
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Pretty disappointing – she was looking for a slam-dunk list rather than thinking creatively about where this information might likely be.
Then I did some research into ChaCha. According to a profile on ABC's Good Morning America, ChaCha guides are people who like to search the web and who, after passing a short vetting process, log on and see if there are any questions to answer. The service is free to users; the guides' pay starts at -- hang on to your hats -- $5/search-hour, and caps at $10/hour. Guides are paid immediately (I sort of like that image of trained rats getting their food pellet after pressing the right button), via direct deposit to a bank acount or onto a debit card.
Bottom line? ChaCha is building an advertiser-supported search service that relies on people who work for less than minimum wage, have no verified expertise in any of the areas in which they claim knowledge, and who don't seem to have much experience figuring out what their "clients" want.
It's probably a fine service if you are a rank beginner in using a search engine, and you don't want to ask your kid how Google works. But, IMO, ChaCha does a huge disservice to most users, who think they are getting expert assistance but are relying on -- based on my quick review of Guide profiles -- a lot of students and stay-at-home moms.