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Today we are pleased to share that ChaCha, the #1 free real-time question and answer service, has enhanced the depth, accuracy, and speed of its online and mobile Q&A service by adding computational knowledge from Wolfram|Alpha. The Wolfram|Alpha integration provides ChaCha users with instantly computed facts and answers to questions from over 100 topic areas, such as demographics, definitions, mathematics, geography, and celebrity facts.
ChaCha has historically used people to answer difficult questions to ensure a high-quality answer. We think ChaCha’s decision to incorporate Wolfram|Alpha, the world’s largest curated data repository, made accessible via free-form queries, is a natural extension of ChaCha’s service. Our match up with ChaCha also opens up Wolfram|Alpha to the larger community serviced by SMS mobile text messaging.
“At ChaCha we are constantly looking at ways in which we can better our users’ experience and provide the fastest and most accurate answers to their questions,” said Scott Jones, ChaCha’s CEO. “By partnering with Wolfram|Alpha and tapping into their vast database of computational knowledge, we are enhancing the scope and efficiency of our service.”
On the first day of integration, Wolfram|Alpha answered 32,000 of ChaCha’s incoming questions in a wide range of topics through ChaCha’s SMS service and mobile app. For example, need some quick homework help? Text “what is the inverse of Xlog3(4)?” to 242-242, and in just seconds ChaCha will text you the correct answer:
Or download the ChaCha mobile app and get Wolfram|Alpha-powered responses, such as “How old is Snoop Dogg?”:
We’re looking forward to providing unique and dynamically computed facts to the ChaCha Community!
ok – how can i use the sms service via android in germany ?
i have tried +1242242 but this seems to be incorrect.
To Wolframalpha Management:
Somehow I would like to think that this is one of the way that wolframalpha can generate for cash.
I am wondering if wolframalpha can be made like HowStuffWorks and ChaCha, Facebook, and Twitter. I believe this is one of the way for cashing of knowledge.
Perhaps wolframalpha can work together with Facebook ?
Wolframalpha should become a number 1 of people choice in answering any question, from science to fictional.
You can’t be serious about this example. What on earth is “Xlog3(4)” supposed to mean?! And what was “inverse” supposed to mean in this ill-defined context?
Alpha interpreted the input as x*log(3)*4, and “inverse” as inverse function, a gallant try. But it is just as likely that the input was intended to mean x times the logarithm base 3 of 4, or that “inverse” meant reciprocal.
I guess the point is that Alpha can produce possibly helpful answers to poorly-phrased or even nonsensical questions. Is that the message you want to convey?
When input is ambiguous Wolfram Alpha is intended to guess the most likely intention but say that this is its assumption. It is also intended to offer all the alternatives and allow the user to select the alternative/s if they wish to do so. W|A is still under development so when it fails the user should report it using the feedback facility at the bottom of the output.