New search engine has a 'human touch'

IU alumnus Scott A. Jones has just created an Internet search engine with a human touch. The Web site, www.chacha.com, launched Sept. 5, uses human guides -- including some IU students -- to provide users with the most relevant responses to their search queries. \nJones, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of ChaCha, graduated with honors from IU in 1984 with a degree in computer science. He conceived the idea for the new search engine in October 2005 while reading a book about the availability of information through Internet searches. He realized most search engines do not access the deep Web. Instead, they deliver thousands more results than users can effectively deal with. \n"Think of the search results," Jones said. "You don't need a million results. Wouldn't it be cool if you could ask the question and get the answer?" \nHe said ChaCha is the first search engine to connect people with human "guides" in real time through an instant message-type chat session. This immediate connection produces more relevant search results quicker than searches that do not use human guides, he said.\n"It does take human intelligence to make sense of words and the way we use language," Jones said. "The same thing is true with (Internet) search." \nChaCha offers two ways to search: Users can click "ChaCha Search" or "Search with Guide." To search with immediate human assistance, users can search with a guide who is an expert in a certain area. Because guides have done extensive Internet searches on select topics, Jones said they know where the information can be found. \nChaCha uses its guided results to fuel user requests for unguided searches. The search index is filtered through results provided by guides for similar previous searches. \nJones said human guides will be able to provide better results for a particular search because of their own interest in the topic. Most people do not have the patience to go past page three on Google, Jones said. \nSince its launch, more people have signed up to work for ChaCha than Google's nearly 8,000 employees, Jones said. Guides come from diverse backgrounds; they include college students, work-from-home mothers and retired people, he said.\nStudents from IU and more than 150 other universities have signed up to work as ChaCha guides. \n"It's the perfect job," Jones said. "You get to pick what you want to search on, you sign up for what you like and work for however long you want." \nBefore they can start answering search queries, ChaCha guides must complete training and an apprenticeship. Once they prove they're search-savvy, guides begin accepting search queries as pros. There are currently about 7,000 people training to become guides and about 2,000 have already completed their apprenticeship. \nMatt Pickel, IU senior and telecommunications major, currently works as a ChaCha guide. He signed up to search for keywords he is familiar with -- including the Indianapolis Colts and golf. \nPickel said he can run the ChaCha guide application in the background of his computer while working on other things. A doorbell notification sound alerts him to an incoming search query that needs his response. \n"It's not a bad gig," Pickel said. "I'm not really doing anything out of the ordinary -- just being on my computer." \nPickel said he introduced his mom to ChaCha and she loves that the new search engine provides two or three relevant results as opposed to thousands of hits. \n"If the results the guides provide are good enough, you can use them," Pickel said. "But if they're not what you want, the guide keeps searching for you."\nBut junior business marketing major Kristy Blum said she worries about the bias a guide might have.\n"Who is to say that a great site might not be listed in the five sites returned to you by a guide?" Blum said.\nSenior exercise science major Ben Petty said he would use the new search engine for nonacademic purposes, but he can also see potential for ChaCha's expert guides to serve as an academic resource.\n"I would like it most for finding academic sources that I could cite for a research paper," Petty said.\nBecause it is still in its experimental "Alpha phase," according to a press release, some kinks still need to be worked out. ChaCha indexes search results produced by its guides, the system becomes smarter and stronger as more people perform more searches.\n"ChaCha injects human intelligence into the (search) results," Jones said. "People will get better results faster and they'll do it with someone who cares"