ChaCha (search engine)

ChaCha is a human-guided search engine. It provides free, real-time answers to any question, through its website, or by using one of the company's mobile apps.

The company, founded in 2006 by Scott A. Jones and Brad Bostic, is based in Carmel, Indiana, USA, part of the Indianapolis metropolitan area. Its name comes from the Mandarin Chinese word cha (Chinese: 查; pinyin: chá; Wade–Giles: ch'a), which means "to search."

Guides

ChaCha answers questions through the use of independent contractors called Guides. They are paid $0.02 per question.

History

The alpha version of ChaCha was launched on September 1, 2006. A beta version was introduced on November 6, 2006. ChaCha said 20,000 guides had registered by year's end and that it had raised US$6 million in development funds, including support from Bezos Expeditions, a personal investment firm owned by Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur behind Amazon.com.

By January 2008, ChaCha had 5,000 freelance guides with at least 500 working at any one time. MogoNews.com reported that ChaCha's first round of equity financing was $14 million plus a $2 million grant from 21st Century Technology Fund.