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Phone in a Question, Get a Text Answer Back with ChaCha

ChaCha is a free cellphone service that lets you ask any question answerable via a Web search, using any cellphone, by simply making a voice call. A few minutes later, you'll receive an answer as a text message.

From All Things Digital:

ChaCha requires no registration and works on any cellphone carrier. It needs no special codes or key words. You just state your question as if you were asking a friend. If you prefer to type your question, you can text it to "ChaCha," or 242242. Though ChaCha itself charges no fees, your phone carrier may charge for the minutes you use, or for the text messages.

The service works by routing your questions to one of 10,000 hired "guides" -- students, stay-at-home parents, retirees and others -- who look up the questions on the Web and reply. They get paid 20 cents per answer.

Read on for a review of the service and a comparison to services such as Google SMS, Goog 411 and Microsoft's TellMe.

Thanks to my colleague, Mary Jo Koranda for the tip about ChaCha.

Full post as published by WisBlawg - From the UW Law Library on August 25, 2008 (boomark / email).