ChaCha mobilizes search with human ‘guides’

The crowded mobile search space welcomed a new player as ChaCha brought its online service to wireless.
The Indianapolis startup unveiled a short-code based version of its search offering, which uses paid human “guides” instead of computer-generated algorithms to deliver information. Users can send questions to 242242 (ChaCha) to query local business listings, sports scores, current events and trivia.
Like the company’s online service, textChaCha is available as a free trial.
ChaCha is shifting its sites to mobile after failing to gain ground on the Web against Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. But while mobile search is no less competitive than Internet search, ChaCha comes to the battle well-funded: Amazon’s Jeff Bezos was the lead investor in an initial round of funding that raised $6 million, and ChaCha recently pocketed an $8 million equity investment plus a $2 million grant from the state of Indiana.
“The ability to ask any question on your mobile phone at any time and receive the answer form a knowledgeable person was unheard of until now,” said ChaCha CEO Scott Jones. “We’re giving everyone with a text-enabled cellphone instant access to information at their fingertips.”