Hand-picked Answers

ChaCha is my favorite new toy and it's currently doing my work for me (well, some of it). I'm working on a project about home energy savings, so I texted the following question to 242242 (ChaCha on most phones):

Q - How much money can I save by changing the light bulb in my room from incandescent to CFL?.

Within a couple minutes, my phone lights up with:

A - You can save about $25 a year by switching bulbs. Thanks for ChaCha-ing!

All ChaCha answers are accompanied by a source link and this one refers to a blog featuring a U.S. Department of Energy calculator for figuring out bulb-replacement savings.

Questions can run the gamut. So far, I've gotten directions, a good light bulb joke, and the weight of William Howard Taft. The only cost is whatever my phone plan charges me for texts. ChaCha's business model is planning on advertisement to support the service.

ChaCha generates answers to questions through a filtered form of crowdsourcing. Questions are answered by guides who must complete an application process involving several hoops (tests, reading, more tests, and an evaluated simulation of the job). Guides aren't volunteers, but private contractors making 20 cents per question answered.

I'm interested in seeing more journalistic uses of this service. Already, I can ask it any question about the news. In an emergency ChaCha could really shine. The ability to text specific questions to another human being who has access to the Web and can hand tailor responses would be brilliant in a disaster situation where communication is limited to SMS. We'll see, for now I intend to keep playing with it and see what else I can come up with.