411 on the Computer

Yesterday was a dark and dismal day. I returned from a Pampered Chef party to discover the Internet was down on my home system. So without being able to cybersurf, I resorted to reading. I was reading my Macleans mag from last week and found a timely article. It the article, “Searching for Help”, the author reveals a new type of search engine. With Google being the superpower of search engines, other companies are coming up with innovative new ways for computer users to search. One that looks pretty neat is ChaCha.com. It will be up and running in January sometime. The article says: “human searchers provide real-time, one-on-one help – for free.”

The founder of ChaCha helped create digital voice mail when he was 26 years old. And a music software called Gracenote. He says ChaCha will be the web version of 411 on the telephone.

He says a user can say something like this: “where can I stay in Vancouver, B.C., with my dog, for under $200 per night?” And you will be connected to a real live guide.

The article goes onto say that Google has its own version at ask.com and Yahoo! Answers is another popular site.

Apparently ChaCha went live on Labour day for experimentation but the site crashed so they have some work to do before the new year.

What is the world coming to eh? 411 on the computer! Too bad it wasn't around sooner because we could use it and say "make me a rubric with 5-7 criteria, that would evaluate educational software - and make sure it is original!!!"

Anastasia Rioux