Baby loves to ChaCha?

Just tried out ChaCha, a new stab at the old humans-search-for-you concept. The conversation was very slow. Each response took 1-3 minutes and overall it was about half an hour. I guess if you wanted to use them effectively you could open up 10 windows and ask 10 questions. I hope they have good protection against bots running thousands of queries at once.

Status: Looking for a guide ...
Status: Connected to guide: ErinL
ErinL: Welcome to ChaCha!
ErinL: hello!
You: Hi!
ErinL: Welcome to ChaCha! Please wait a moment while I search for your results.
You: are you there?
ErinL: yes I'm still searching. i'm just getting the news show.
You: it's an australian show
You: a comedy
You: different the us one
ErinL: I've found it. bare with me.
ErinL: this is the correct show, right?
You: Yep
You: I'll give you a clue
You: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22rob+sitch+played%22+frontline&hl=en&sourceid=gd&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-41,GGLD:en
ErinL: here is the wikipedia site. he played Mike Moore.
You: Thanks..Does that url come up now?
ErinL: Are these results sufficient? Is there anything else I can find for you?
You: Yep what's the most popular site published by Rapid Intelligence?
ErinL: ok bare with me as I find that answer as well.
ErinL: Is this what you are looking for?
You: ..
ErinL: hmmm?
You: is somehting supposed tocome up in the guide results now?
You: I don't see a url
ErinL: yes. you should have 3.
ErinL: www.rapint.com
You: nothing showed up..I'm using firefox
You: one more question.. Who is the opposition leader in Australia?
ErinL: oooh. I don't think it's compatible with fire fox. This is the 2nd time I've had this happen.
ErinL: if I give you the www site can you find it from there? I'm not familiar with firefox.
You: yep no prob
ErinL: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontline_%Australian_TV_series%29
ErinL: www.rapint.com for the rapid intelligence question
ErinL: I hope this helps you. If not let me know. Is there anything else I can do?
You: Yep Who is the opposition leader in Australia?
ErinL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Australian_Opposition_Leaders
ErinL: It's Kevin Rudd.
You: Thank you
You: One more quesiton: where are you based?

[many minutes pass]

ErinL: Thanks for searching ChaCha! Have a nice day. thank you.
ErinL: Please RATE ME. Thanks for using ChaCha.
Status: Session ended.
Status: Looking for a guide ...
Status: Connected to guide: AmandaG
AmandaG: Welcome to ChaCha!
AmandaG: Chacha is based in Indiana.
You: Where are you personally right now? (which city)

[10 minutes pass. Things start getting really slow here]

You: are you there?
You: Are you checking to see if you're allowed to answer this or?
You: Hello?
You: Thanks, I'm done.
Status: Session ended.
Status: Looking for a guide ...
Status: Connected to guide: Steven C
Steven C: Welcome to ChaCha!
Steven C: hi
You: Hi Steven
Steven C: hi
You: where are you?
Steven C: in USA
You: Ok thanks

Impressive they could actually field queries despite a recent spike in traffic. But I can't say I think it's a great business. Perhaps if you publish the chats, you've got yourself an easy way to generate content for AdSense. Perhaps ones that both chatters agree is worth publishing. Or it could work doing verticals. I'm sure there's room on the net for a few Indian mesothelioma experts giving you advice then sending you to affiliated sites.