« Super Bowl Ad Creates Spike in Activity at Hulu in February | Main | Microsoft Search News Out of IE 8 and MIX09 »
March 20, 2009
The KGB is Available to Answer Your Questions (Via Text Search)
I have the tv on in the background while I blog from the comfort of my North Carolina home, and happened to catch a commercial advertising the KGB.
WHAT!?!?!?! I've seen enough spy shows to know that the KGB are Russian spies.
Well not anymore. The KGB has apparently changed its mission to providing a text search service. The U.S. number is 542542, which is quite close to rival text search company Cha Cha's number of 242242.
I like text search services because someone else does the searching while I go on with my business. Cha Cha usually takes about 5-6 minutes to return an answer. So, I decided to test it out....
99 Cents per answer? In addition to text messaging rates? I can tell I won't be using this service often. But let's see how they do, and how they stack up against Cha Cha and Google's Text Service. I asked each of the services the same question:
"Which team has won the most men's NCAA basketball championships?"
KGB took 15 minutes to answer.
With Cha Cha, I get an answer in 19 minutes, which surprises me. In the past, I've gotten answers as quickly as 5-6 minutes. (I also realize that they've adding advertising to their text search. Notice the Walmart ad. I was wondering how they'd monetize.)
Google Text Search is a non-starter. Check this out:
With mobile internet on the rise, it's nice to see some good competition in the text search space, especially since Google doesn't appear poised to play.
In the meantime, it's entertaining to see what other mobile users are asking via text, which you can learn on the homepages of KGB.com and ChaCha.com.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on March 20, 2009 12:57 PM
Comments
Darn it, you got me going! I thought the KGB had been revived in some strange way. It's just some stupid company in New York that picked a catchy name. And their replies aren't always spelled correctly, either.
the WA March 20, 2009 9:36 PM
kgbkgb on a phone = 542542, dont think its a copy of another numbe.r..
asd March 22, 2009 8:58 AM
I don't really see the value in services like these. Perhaps if I were a reporter trying to make a deadline and I wanted some quick and easy research. Otherwise, I'd rather use Google Search on my iPhone than pay 99cents for each question.
And for those who'll say, "what about those of us who don't have web access on our phones?", I guess I have to defer. Should you find yourself using text based search companies often, you'll probably get more value by paying the monthly fee for internet access on your phone.
Daniel Dessinger March 23, 2009 11:09 AM
@ Daniel:
and bring yourselves into the 21st century! (spoken by a current owner of a nokia "one-step-removed-from-a-zach-morris" phone ::hanging head in shame::)
Trevor March 30, 2009 11:38 AM
So, they don't tell you not to use the service while driving. 19 Minutes and you could be 10 minutes past your destination. If my customers had to wait ten minutes to find a product in their pos search system, or contact a manager, then nothing would ever get done.
I wonder what their customer return rate is.
Mark April 18, 2009 8:04 PM
I tryed them out and KGB did not help me at all!!!
i asked them a simple question about working on a car and they said it would take a long time and be safe to aviod workplace acedents, what kinda answer is that!!
Tyler July 21, 2009 5:33 PM
