Send an SMS message and receive a human answer within 6 minutes. They purport to answer ANY question excluding adult matters for £1 per time.
Could this be the next incarnation of digital (rather than web based) search and answer?
Nice piece at The Register - [theregister.co.uk...] and the site itself at [issuebits.com...]
What do you think about it?
Jason
sample question i saw included,
'how did my pubs football team do last week?' (i assume they told them which pub;))?
and
'where can i eat good dim sum in london?'
could be handy...
WAP never really worked in the mainstream, whereas the much less technical SMS system became huge.
If I recall correctly Shak was a forerunner in the discount SMS marketplace and with his launch in the search engine marketplace I wonder what his views are on this - Shak?
Personally I think it is the way forward for search. Premium rate SMS is widely accepted and used daily by many people and by combining human researchers with algorithmic assesment it should mean that the results returned are spot on.
What happens if the customer is dissatisfied with the answer?
Is there a PPA (Pay Per Answer) model behind the answers? (i.e. If you ask for a good restaurant in London - is McDonalds paying to be the 1st answer)
I think there are many issues to resolve before this kind of service can be accepted as a mainstream service.
At least with web search the user is not paying for the service and, if he takes the time to look into it, can find out where the results come from.
The issue bits service gives no indication on its website about where/how the answers are generated, there is no privacy policy, no indication as to how the company may use the information you have supplied. I personally would be very, very concerned about using such a service.
SMS is an accepted way of communication and has come a long way since 2000 when I was involved in a project.
shame I only have a t-mobile or o2 phone in the house, and I cant test the service.
I think the idea of staff working from home is also very good, and will result in some very very clever people applying.
so for the moment, I say "1 to watch"
Shak
What PDA did 90% (my guesstimate) of Europeans use in the early to mid 90s?
The Psion marketing machine worked and worked extremely well in its day. It's just a pity that the old EPOC operating system isn't available anymore except as to Series 60 licencees (But that's a wholely different thread). I personally think we'll be reading about this tomorrow in our newspapers.
Anyone want to send a £1 message to them and ask what their marketing campaign consists of? (121 Mobile here so I can't I'm afraid :P )
Based on the old Psion business model I can see partnerships with the Dixons group selling physical access packs akin to how the Wireless Information Network did with premium rate football scores, World Cup info etc. In fact I wouldn't be too suprised if Sir Stanley is a shareholder.
Question sent at 11.44 = Who owns "example".co.uk domain name, and how much is it worth.
Answer arrived at 12.15 = "example".co.uk domain name owned by "company x limited" of 123 anyroad, london, e27 4sd, like any market, the value depends on what "company x" would take for it
so there you go ....
Shak
(slight changes to name, street etc etc)
