Apr
1
So it turns out that ChaCha is dumping their real-time “Search with Guide” chat model in the Web space according to a Techcrunch informant. Apparently their mobile move is growing rapidly and they believe all their resources should be moved toward that. Not very surprising. In a previous post, I essentially said that ChaCha can’t compete with Google on the Web; however, they can make a claim for the mobile search space. Good luck ChaCha!
Feb
25
ChaCha.com Vs. Google.com
Filed Under Internet Search, Misc | 1 Comment
So ChaCha.com is a Indy based company headed by the herald Scott Jones. If you’ve never used ChaCha.com, it’s a Internet search service that’s human powered. This means that you can search with a human search guide. There are people who are trained in searching the Web that work for ChaCha.com and help you if you hit the “Search with Guide” button. The natural question is how will ChaCha.com scale this operation? There are only so many search guides, and only so many of them can help so many people at once. But let’s ignore scaling issues. Let’s pretend that ChaCha.com worked the way it was envisioned to work. Could ChaCha.com really disrupt Google?
Based on the “Innovator’s Solution,” I would purport, “a definitive NO.” ChaCha.com would be sustaining innovation (again, if it worked the way envisioned). Internet search is Google’s breadwinner. You think Google is just going to lay down and let some new entrant snatch its main course right out its mouth? Think again!
So I think ChaCha.com’s move into the mobile search space is very smart one. This is still a relatively untapped space, and ChaCha.com has a real chance to own it. But ChaCha.com would do well to move expediently, as Google is clearly trying to move into this space. Thankfully though, it hasn’t reach critical mass yet. Move quickly ChaCha!!!