So I’m on my way to Biltmore in Arizona explaining to my driver what I do for a living. I’m trying to describe Wikinomics in the simplest of terms when he interrupts me, pausing briefly to flash a wry smile. “Say no more,” he says, “I know exactly what you’re talking about.” He explains that his daughter is on the Internet all day long answering questions on ChaCha and making about $100 a day. I admit I have no idea what he’s talking about, but I’m highly intrigued. It certainly sounds like something I ought to know about, so when I get to my hotel room I look it up.
So it turns out that ChaCha is a mobile answer service for people who need information quickly on the go. Let’s say, for some reason, you want to know how many seconds there are in a decade but your math skills aren’t up to scratch (apparently there are either 315,532,800 or 315,619,200 depending on whether the decade contains two leap years, or three). Or maybe you want to know who scored the winning goal in the 1966 World Cup clash between England and West Germany (it was Geoff Hurst, the only player ever to have scored three times in a World Cup final).
You text your question in conversational English to the ChaCha system (you can also leave a voice mail). Your question is routed to a specialist in the ChaCha network (mostly Internet savvy teenagers) who provides an answer within minutes. If you want to impress your friends and associates with your wit and sense of humor, ChaCha will also send you jokes!
On average, ChaCha specialists make between $3 and $9 an hour, but the most proficient Internet researchers can make a lot more (compensation is determined by one’s speed and accuracy in answering questions). My driver’s daughter is apparently one of them. He says all of her friends collaborate with one another to find answers fast, coordinating their searches using IM. Sounds like a decent day job for a high school student, at least until artificial intelligence makes all of this redundant.
Comments
Actually, I think chacha thrives on the conversational aspect of its service. Adding human intelligence to the mix makes it easier for people to use and understand.
The answers are so short that they’ll never have questions that are too hard for even a student to look up, that way there will never be a shortage of guides.
You might like directionless enquiries. Its the same sort of service but it runs on good will instead of dollars, and on the phone instead of by text. Its still in beta over here in the uk but its really very good fun. Will be interesting to see how it develops.
http://www.directionless.info/