Text search head-to-head: Google vs. Cha Cha
The first time that I heard about Google text search I was at my sister-in-law’s parent’s house in Rochester, NY, and we were discussing how you can send a question to Google via text and get a quick response. Just sent a text to 466453 (‘GOOGLE’ on most devices) with a question, and Google will text you back with the answer.
My brother was there for that conversation, and was equally impressed, so when I got the following Twitter message from Matt a couple of weeks back, I was very interested:
Cha Cha bills itself as a mobile search service. To get answers from Cha Cha, text your question to 242242 (spells ‘ChaCha’), and wait.
This sounded a lot like Google, but Matt claimed that it was better than Google, and I had some time on my hands (I was actually sitting at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, MA, at the time), so I thought I would do a totally unscientific head-to-head comparison sending random questions to both Google and Cha Cha and seeing what I got back. Here’s what I found:
QUESTION: Who sings It’s a heartache?
REPLIES:
Google: Sorry. Did not return any results.
Cha Cha: Janis Joplin’s version of “It’s a Heartache.”
QUESTION: What’s the water temperature in Gloucester, MA?
REPLIES:
Google: Sorry. Did not return any results.
Cha Cha: These are the only 2 I found for water temperatures in MA. Boston, MA 66.9 degrees F/19.4 degrees C Woods Hole, MA 72.0 degrees F
QUESTION: Who sings I need a hero?
REPLIES:
Google: Sorry. Did not return any results.
Cha Cha: I Need A Hero is sung by Bonnie Tyler.
QUESTION: Weather, Gloucester, MA
REPLIES:
Google: Weather: Gloucester, MA 72F, Clear Wind: W 0 mph Hum: 90% Sat: 56F-79F, Clear Sun: 65F-79F, Mostly Sunny Mon: 56F-81F, Chance of storm
Cha Cha: Gloucester, MA 76F, Fair Sat: 57F-77F, Sunny Sun: 66F-80F, Slight Chance Rain Showers
QUESTION: Circumference of the earth
REPLIES:
Google: Sorry. Did not return any results.
Cha Cha: The circumference of the earth at the equator is 24,901.55 mi, but, if you measure through the poles it measures 24,859.82 mi.
QUESTION: Distance to Mars
REPLIES:
Google: Sorry. Did not return any results.
Cha Cha: The average distance to Mars is 48 million miles.
QUESTION: Movie theaters in 01915
REPLIES:
Google: Movies: MA 01915 1. Tropic Thunder 2. Star Wars: The Clone Wars 3. Death Race 4. Mamma mia! 5. Pineapple Express 6. The Longshots 7. The Dark Knight 8. The House Bunny 9. The Rocker Send 1 to 9 for showtimes or NEXT for more movies. <I sent 5> Movies: Pineapple Express 1hr 45min, Rated R Drama 3.5/5 CinemaSalem 2:35 5:00 7:30 9:45 1 East India Square Salem, 01970 978-744-1400 AMC Loews Liberty Tree Mall 20 1:50 4:30 7:40 8:40 10:20 11:25 100 Independence Drive Danvers, MA 01923 978-750-9019
Cha Cha: Cabot Street Cinema on Cabot Street and Larcom Theater on Wallis Street.
QUESTION: How many calories in a donut?
REPLIES:
Google: Sorry. Did not return any results.
Cha Cha: Calories range from 200-300 calories, is there one in specific you want the calories for?
QUESTION: Score Patriots
REPLIES:
Google: NFL *Philadelphia*: 27 New England: 17 Final, Aug 22 Recent game: Aug 17 New England: 10 *Tampa Bay*: 27 Next Game: Aug 28 7:00pm EDT New England at NY Giants
Cha Cha: Aug 22, 2008 Philadelphia VS Patriots lose 17-27. That is not good. They need to pick up their game before the season starts.
QUESTION: Who is the quarterback for the Patriots
REPLIES:
Google: Sorry. Did not return any results.
Cha Cha: Tom Brady is the QB for the Patriots.
In my experiment, the overall winner was definitely Cha Cha. This is how I would break it down:
Cha Cha
Pros: Cha Cha dominated the random facts categories. I was able to get more answers to more types of questions from Cha Cha than from Google.
Cons: Speed – Cha Cha sometimes takes quite awhile to reply – the longest reply actually took 57 minutes. Most answers came in about 5 minutes. Also, the reply to movie theaters in 01915 was not exactly right – the Larcom Theater is no longer a movie theater although it was at one time.
Neither pro nor con: One thing about Cha Cha is that it is real people looking up the answers to your questions. This felt kind of weird to me as I was sitting in my beach chair sending people on information missions, but you might like having people at your disposal to do your bidding. It was also a little odd to get occasional editorial comments with my answers (see the Patriots question, above), but I kind of liked that and thought it was fun. Again, some people might find this annoying.
Google:
Pros: Speed – answers came to me lightning quick. No waiting, or maybe a couple of seconds wait. Google also has the lead in pretty much any question that it answers – if Google has the answer, it’s thorough and complete, and I trust the information. Google also definitely takes the lead in local search.
Cons: Limited types of questions can be answered by Google. There is also a way to send questions to Google that ensures a better answer, this convention can take some getting used to.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: Cha Cha, Gloucester, Google, Mars, Matt, movies, Patriots, Search, Texting, Twitter, weather
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I like ChaCha, I prefer their conversational answers and not having to mess with specific codes and keywords (like google). They are a new company and I feel like they will only improve things like speed and accuracy when they grow. With all the junk coming through on computer searches it makes sense to go back and add a human touch.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:23 am
If you think they’re good, you should take a look at the excellent AQA 63336 service in the UK. It’s a similar kinda thing but way better by the sound of it. http://www.63336.com is the website.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:07 am
problem with AQA is that they CHARGE for their service (it’s like one or two euros for each question). i spose if yur in the UK and you don’t have ChaCha it’s an option but i have too many random thoughts to pay for every one! Similar, but not better, ChaCha wins again!
September 24th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Even cooler is chacha mobile voice search. Dial 1-800-224-2242 (1-800-2ChaCha). You ask any question in a natural voice and ChaCha sends back a text answer to the question. Very cool!
September 27th, 2008 at 2:51 pm
[...] by the explosive adoption of ChaCha by the “under 25” age group. While ChaCha performs as a dramatically better search (answers) capability on mobile phones, perhaps educators and others might take a broader and [...]
October 30th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
It’s true – AQA 63336 does cost £1 in UK. But just for the hell of it I typed in a few of your questions to see what the answers would be – apart from the time sensitive ones. AQA is also recruiting for researchers in the US (and chacha’ers out there?) – pays something like 50c per question answered – top researchers answer 7,000 a month.
So here’s some of your answers…
“It’s a Heartache” was a number 4 hit for gravel-throated singing star Bonnie Tyler in Dec 1977. It was written by Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe.
Jennifer Saunders sings ‘I Need a Hero’ as the credits roll in Shrek 2. The original was sung by Bonnie Tyler and reached No. 2 in the UK singles chart.
The circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,901.55 miles. Measured around the poles, it is 24,859.82 miles as the Earth is not a perfect sphere.
Mars’s distance from the Sun is 142 million miles. Its distance from Earth varies from 36 million miles to over 250 million miles. It’s the 4th planet.
A Krispy Kreme jam doughnut contains 10 grams of sugar, 12 grams of fat & 200 calories. The chocolate varieties contain upwards of 300 calories.
Tom Brady is Quarterback for the New England Patriots. He is 6’4″ tall and weighs 225 lbs. He was born on 8 Mar 1977 and he plays as number 12.
July 3rd, 2009 at 12:32 pm
[...] comes to texting in libraries. My annoyance stems primarily from the repeated accolades scattered all over the web as well as commercials on tv advertising the wonders of text answering services such as [...]
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:58 pm
last I checked if you are not a Sprint client Cha Cha is limited to only like 3 questions a month and after that you are just done. I thought Cha Cha was GREAT in the beginning… then they changed it and I got messages back telling me I was out of questions or at my limit unless I was a Sprint client. Seemed pointless to me after that.