Do the Cha Cha [Cha]! 8 Dec 2006

Seems like there's a new development in the field of search engine design every day at the moment. The latest is Cha Cha and you've gotta give it a go. Type your search terms and click on the "Search With Guide" button - this sends your query to "a real person who is skilled at finding information on the internet and knowledgable on the subject at hand so that you get the few exact results you want, not the millions of results you don't."

Some early users have been uncomfortable with the thought of another human being knowing what they're searching for, and many people doubt whether the company's business model will prove sustainable as the site reaches a mainstream audience (Can the cost of one-to-one, user-expert interaction really be offset by advertising revenues alone?). However, if issues like these can be resolved, the task of searching could be made a lot easier for the majority of users who wouldn't know a boolean operator if it bit them on the - well, you know where.