why?  because i'm using ChaCha.

Normally I don't blog about presenters before my meetup, but this one has really impressed me.  ChaCha 'is' answers to all of your questions at your fingertips.

It's a mobile (text or call) service that allows you to ask any question.  A diligent outsourced human will research the answer and reply within seconds/minutes. 

How'd it win my affection?

Well, I wasn't sure if it was human powered or yet another crappy machine intelligence.  I couldn't find info on their website, so I rang 1-800.2.ChaCha and asked "How does ChaCha work?" and hung-up.  They got my number via caller id, within a minute I had an answer txt'd to me - "ChaCha provides answers on the go, with human guides who search the web to answer your questions.  We make money from advertising.

A follow-up question of "What time is it in Paris" quickly returned with "It is currently 4:23:00am on Thursday, May 29th in Paris France."

Finally, a problem a friend was working involving the average age of presidents - ChaCha got within the ballpark under a minute.