I heard about ChaCha a few years ago, but I was recently reminded of them when my sister gushed about their services.
Basically, in a nutshell, ChaCha is a professional Googling service. You can email or text them a question (I personally prefer to text), and they’ll answer it, usually within an hour.
Now, why would you need this, especially if you have an iPhone or another phone with a browser? Well, you can ask them qualititative questions as well.
For example, I asked ChaCha what the best club in Boston is. (They told me Felt, and I strongly disagreed — I go to clubs a few times a week, and I think that Mantra, Saint, the Estate and Rumor are MUCH better than Felt.) I asked when Michael Phelps’s next races were being broadcast on the East Coast.
Then I asked, “Who is the grammar vandal?”
The answer? “A female superhero living in Boston that has is [sic] driven to eradicate grammar errors in public in Boston and elsewhere.” A superhero! Yay!
Then, “Who is Kate McCulley?”
The answer: “Kate McCulley is the grammar vandal!” Awesome.
Then it turned sour.
Because I couldn’t resist, I asked the following question: “How do you get a guy to notice you?”
The answer: “Well you could get done up very nice and make sure your near him a lot. Just go up to him and talk with him 🙂”
Make sure YOUR near him a lot?! No! NO!!!
It got worse.
I asked: “Do [certain] guys ever date girls [like me]?”
The answer: “Sure why not? There rather sexy don’t you think? I would encourage trying new things!”
Oh, my God.
Well, I enjoy their answers, so I’m going to keep using it.
But come on — is it REALLY that hard to hire people who know the proper forms of your and you’re and there and their and they’re?
The Grammar Vandal 
Hey, two days of walking is good! Way to go 🙂
Ugh! I’m actually a part-time ChaCha guide (it supplements my writing hobby), and I HATE it when I see stuff like that. Most guides are actually pretty good when it comes to knowing basic grammar, but the ones like you got make us all look bad.
I’m an idiot. That comment I left last night was intended for another blog that I was reading at the same time that happens to have the same WordPress layout. This is what happens when you try to read multiple blogs while watching the Olympics. FAIL!!
What I meant to say was: I used to have this kind of fun with Anna the “customer service” rep on Ikea’s website. Her grammar isn’t much better.
You may mock the Modern Gal now.
Haha! I thought so!
Mock mock. Mock.
Why are you asking those questions? Feeling unlucky in love lately?
It’s funny that you say that, Nicole — both my current job and my last job could be considered professional Googling. They’re very different kinds of jobs, though. I now work in search marketing.
Alexa, you know I’m a very happy being a pimpette!
I did it mainly to see what they had to say.
I also asked if it was acceptable to get drunk at a company outing if everyone, including bosses and bosses of bosses, was drunk as well. They responded that it was okay as long as the bosses were trashed! I love ChaCha!
Kate, a foreigner needs your (you’re, hahaha) help!
Could you please give me a definition of the word ‘pimpette’? I have an idea of it and I know that it’s not a female pimp (!), but the online dictionary that I use doesn’t have it.
There was just an entry in the discussion forum where one user suggested that pimpette was probably a misspelling of ‘pipette’.
You see: this is urgent!
If you want to check it out (there is also an English version):
http://dict.leo.org
Ugh, I hate mistakes like that.
Haha! Junior Alien, I doubt it would be in any dictionary. I don’t think it’s an actual word yet.
It’s pretty much the female equivalent of the word pimp. In my case, I usually mean it as a girl who always has a ton of guys from which to choose!
Hey, thanks for the post about ChaCha. I checked ’em out, signed up as a guide, and started making mad money yesterday.
Pingback: Watch Yer Language - Your Monday reading list
Hey! Most of us ChaCha Guides aren’t too horrible… But we’re actually supposed to answer the question within minutes, not an hour, so there are many that will put very little effort into the answer. It makes us all look bad.
And by the way, I was the one to answer the “who is Kate McCulley” question, which is how I found this blog!