They don't really have one as such. They're trying to gather user input on searches to generate the results.
Is this ever going to be reverse-engineerable!
Quote:
Status: Connecting ...
Status: Looking for a guide ...
Status: Connected to guide: mikef
mikef: Welcome to ChaCha!
mikef: hello
You: Thank you for having me.
mikef: sure
You: How can you help me?
mikef: I aid you in your search
You: Okay.
mikef: Are you looking for a web design co in toronto?
You: Yes.
mikef: Let me see what I can dig up for you
You: Okay, thank you.
You: I already contacted that company. What else can you find?
You: And why do I see a loan ad?
mikef: what do mean a loan ad
You: Sponsored Link: $310,000 Mortgage for $998/mth As featured on Oprah. Loan rates near 39-year lows. Think you're paying too much? See new payment. www.lowermybills.com Business Marketing and Advertising
mikef: I don't see that. Is it on the page that hosts the link, or does it pop up when you open the link to that web design company
You: It's in your guide results.
You: Where do you get the results from, anyway?
mikef: If it is at the top, I think it is a sponsorship that lowermybills.com pays to cha cha, just like what yahoo and aol does. I don't send them, they are just there
You: Okay.
mikef: We use software that catagorizes searches from all over the web and are stored in the cha cha database for future searches. If I search toronto web design again or someone else does, the results i found will automatically come up.
mikef: Are any of the links I sent helpfull to you
You: Not so far.
You: All the Services just looks like another mini-search engine.
mikef: are you looking to hire a company or work for one?
You: Hire.
mikef: let me redifine the search and see if I can zero in on it from a different angle
mikef: The last 2 links I sent have toronto locations but are not exclusively in Toronto.
mikef: can I remove some of the links you don't want?
You: Yeah, I want a guy near me if I can get one.
You: Please do.
|
Buddy clears the results at this point. I forgot to copy and paste them. But, All The Services pops up as you'll see below.
Quote:
You: Can you search by postal code in Canada?
mikef: where are you? Metro Toronto or nearby?
You: Scarborough, actually.
You: But all the Scarborough guys refer to themselves as Toronto.
mikef: let me try that
|
Results:
About a minute later, he comes up with this:
Besides being spammy as hell from the looks of it, it's not even in the right country!
Quote:
You: That's in England.
You: I'm in Ontario.
mikef: lol
mikef: sorry
You: No problem.
You: Maybe if you tried by my postal code: M1H 3B7.
|
Now, for those who haven't figured it out, I'm trying to guide him to my company site. But it doesn't really seem to be working well. Not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Meanwhile, some more results:
Still not in Scarborough.
But wait...this gets funnier.
Quote:
mikef: that overloaded it and confused the search. No am getting every dress desingnor in your town
You: Why are you getting dress designers for web design?
You: And for that matter, why are they occurring for my postal code?
|
NOTE: The postal code in question is the postal code for the new location of a client of mine. It's a series of government offices. No dress desingnors in the lot.
Oh wait...now I know why he's so confused.
Quote:
mikef: because design is a keyword along with M1H 387 which as also now a keyword and they are being grouped
You: That's a B, not an 8.
You: Mary 1 Harry, 3 Bob 7.
|
**** those M1H 387ers. Bastard guys!
Let's see what happens now that I've spelled it correctly.
** waits another ten minutes **
Okay, I'm bored. Time to end this and show Mike some love.
Quote:
You: I take it you're not from Canada.
You: Anyway, I'm sorry to have wasted your time but it's midnight here and I've got to go to bed soon.
You: Thanks, anyway, Mike. I hope I can call you "friend." Maybe you'll be a guide again for me sometime.
mikef: I was only able to find the previous companies. THe postal didn't help out because it was becoming a more specific keyword than web designer and then pulling more info toward it. So was getting all type of design business in that area.
|
This "business model" is going straight to the toilet. Then again, looking at their site and seeing what they pay these "guides", this isn't all that surprising.
http://www.chacha.com/info/guidesignup
Yeah, sign me up to go work for $5 an hour. Maybe if I were eleventeen.
CAL, thank you for bringing half an hour's worth of pointless amusement to my life. I owe you one, dude.
