ChaCha is starting to acquire some avid fans!!! I can always count on some of you to keep me apprised of any ChaCha news…and apparently some (many) of you are day-time talk show fans. I was recently informed that Whoopi Goldberg – from “The View” – is a big fan of ChaCha and thinks our service is “cool”. She was also apparently poking fun with Barbara Walters since Barbara’s dog is named “Cha-Cha”. (Click here for the video clip from the show.)
Because Whoopi, Barbara, and crew are so cool, as a token of our appreciation for the complimentary “review” of our world-changing service, we sent a fun gift pack to everyone on the set.
And of course, we couldn’t forget Barbara’s little “Cha-Cha”, so we sent along a full wardrobe of cozy ChaCha doggie jacket, tank top and polo. (Click here for photos.)
Special thanks to all the super ChaCha fans out there. You’re the best! Keep texting 242-242 and calling 800-2-Cha-Cha. And thanks for letting me know your thoughts.
Try experimental 1-800-224-2242 from your mobile phone.
Let me know if you agree with the title above…
PS: Note that I’m still getting the hang of this blogging thing. Hopefully, more posts soon!
I can now officially say that I am no longer a blog virgin. Welcome to my first post! However, I’m told that if I’m not willing to blog once or twice a week, I might as well not start. So, here goes with an early 2008 New Year’s resolution—blog!! I have to admit that I feel as though I’m talking to myself, but I guess that’s never stopped me before… 
So here goes. This one will be short and sweet.
My last two decades as an entrepreneur and inventor have been exhilarating, to say the least. I got my start in my early 20’s by creating scalable voicemail that took hold around the world to become the predominant version being used globally today. That background helped me open a few doors in other change-the-world endeavors such as Gracenote (CDDB). http://www.gracenote.com
My primary focus these days is ChaCha, a search engine I thought of nearly 20 years ago—during those voicemail days. I needed some information for two speeches at separate conferences in London and Hong Kong on “The Future of Voicemail.”
I started my speeches by walking up and down the stage talking to myself. The people in the audience probably thought I’d lost my mind. After several long seconds of this, I would reveal that I was talking to the concealed mobile phone in my ear (obviously sci fi in the days of “brick” cell phones). This imaginary phone had an embedded speech recognition agent in the network that was doing a credible job of representing the century-old switchboard operator who would know not only the new restaurant in town but what people were saying about the best thing to order on the menu or which waitress to avoid.
In addition—in this pre-Web era—this “agent” operator had access to the entire Library of Congress and could give me any tidbit of information that I might need. It was a grand dream at the time that dazzled my audiences, but, sadly, the enabling elements were not in place to build a real product. So, I spent the next years building the best voicemail platform on the planet.
About ten years later, by coincidence, I found myself at a dinner event seated next to Kurt Vonnegut. I pitched that same idea about “Library of Congress in your ear” to him. To my surprise, he hated the idea. I wasn’t sure if he was kidding me. “How could you NOT want such a capability?” I asked. He proceeded to tell me how he preferred to wander over to the neighborhood library, settle deeply down into his chair, and look furtively over his glasses to watch the young (female) library helper reaching for the top shelf to replace a book–so he could look up her skirt. Vintage Vonnegut. Further probing revealed that, for him, it was all about “the experience”!
Luddites notwithstanding, about two years ago, I felt like the stars had aligned: When I couldn’t find the information I needed from Google and Yahoo for a speech I was giving to the President’s Council of the National Academies, I called a couple of friends (VC’s and CTO’s), who quickly referred me to specific sites on the Web that fulfilled my research needs. I realized how valuable a service like that could be. The light bulb went off—we had the Web, there was excellent connectivity between human experts, and the technology platform was affordable. So I felt it was time to call my fellow entrepreneur friend, Brad. And ChaCha was born. (Visit Brad’s blog — http://blog.bradbostic.com )
ChaCha is the first search engine to use human brainpower to provide the most relevant results in real time. There’s plenty on that topic at www.chacha.com/info/press.
In a future blog, I think I’ll talk a bit about why disruptively attacking a mature (past peak?) industry in downdraft conditions (e.g. book publishing, music, newspapers, movies, etc…) is similar to piloting a helicopter that has lost engine power!
