Call 1-800-2-ChaCha. Ask in your own voice. Receive free answers by text.
LAS VEGAS, April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- From the scoop on the hottest
martini bar on the Vegas strip to advice on where to buy the cheapest gas
in Manhattan, ChaCha's ingenious new 1-800-2-ChaCha (800-224-2242) mobile
answers service allows mobile phone users to ask an extensive range of
questions in conversational English while on the go -- and the free answers
are texted back within minutes.
The online and mobile search company is announcing its free new voice
service today at the CTIA Wireless 2008 global convention in Las Vegas.
You can ask ChaCha almost anything:
-- How much sodium is in a McDonald's Big Mac?
-- What hotel in downtown Austin has a business center?
-- Who won the last Boston Marathon?
-- Where can I get the cheapest gas in Orlando, Florida?
-- Who stars in the new movie "21"?
ChaCha's valuable new service instantly routes each question to a human
guide -- dramatically expanding the questions you can ask well beyond
simple phone numbers or addresses. The guides utilize powerful tools to
search the Web and quickly return a succinct, relevant answer in a text
message with a Web reference link.
"On mobile devices, traditional 411 has been the only easy to use
option and it is limited to the basics of only finding a phone number or
address," explains ChaCha CEO Scott A. Jones. "More recently, desktop
search engines have attempted to enter the mobile market by forcing users
to enter a restricted query with their thumbs on a tiny keypad in a
specific way, which causes most people to find other ways of meeting their
information needs, such as calling a friend or waiting until they get to a
computer, or, worse yet, making less-informed decisions. Using ChaCha is
like having thousands of informed friends available by phone to help answer
your questions 24 hours a day."
Moreover, ChaCha works on any mobile phone -- from simple flip phones
to sophisticated smart phones -- with no voice recognition prompts or menus
to muddle through.
"With our innovative combination of human intelligence and
sophisticated technology, ChaCha's mobile answers service does the work for
you," explains ChaCha President Brad Bostic. "Another groundbreaking
feature is that you can easily reply with follow-up questions, as you might
do in a conversation, further demonstrating how superior our new service is
compared to 411 or algorithmic search engines."
ChaCha's new voice capability further expands upon its award-winning
text service launched in January of this year. After only two months of
deployment, ChaCha demonstrated at the "My Search is Better than Your
Search" competition at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Manhattan
that it dominates the mobile search arena by taking top prize for its
service's technical efficiency, relevance and practical functionality.
Additionally, ChaCha was ranked as the "No. 1 Alternative Search
Engine" in February -- beating out hundreds of companies -- by Charles
Knight of the blogging network, ReadWriteWeb. Last month, out of 70
promising start-ups presenting at Dow Jones' "Web Ventures", ChaCha was
selected as a "Top Ten" company by VentureWire's judges.
"ChaCha's new voice capability pushes the boundaries of mobile 411
beyond its historical name and address limitations," says Greg Sterling,
principal of Sterling Market Intelligence and the Program Director for
Local Mobile Search. "It represents a next step in the evolution of the
industry from directory assistance to voice search."
About ChaCha: ChaCha, a mobile answers service, allows users to call
1-800-2-CHA-CHA (800-224-2242) or text questions to CHACHA (242-242) on
mobile phones and receive answers within minutes. ChaCha guides -- trained
and skilled individuals -- use ChaCha's powerful internal search tools to
respond to any query. Created by serial entrepreneur Scott A. Jones and
Brad Bostic, ChaCha is funded by Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment
firm of Jeff Bezos; Morton Meyerson, former President and Vice Chairman of
EDS and former Chairman and CEO of Perot Systems; Rod Canion, founding CEO
of Compaq Computer; and Jack Gill, well-known Silicon Valley venture
capitalist. For more information about ChaCha's newest features, go to
http://www.chacha.com.
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