All Aboard the ChaCha Train!

Filed under Tidbits

You know, I knew that my blog had been getting more and more visits lately. Especially since I was pretty much the first person to post the long awaited name of Tinok ben Aviva Feiner (Avraham Yeshayahu, after the Chazon Ish) on the web, being that I did it just moments after the name was given in Jerusalem's Great Synagogue this morning. But you know what really made me feel like I'm finally "on the map"? Getting noticed by ChaCha.

First, a quick little introduction for those of you who have just arrived from some distant planet and do not yet know what ChaCha is: ChaCha is a text-messaging-based mobile search service. Simply put, that means that you can send a text message with any question you want to "CHACHA" (that's 242242 on your phone's keypad), and you will generally get an answer within a short time. For example, you can ask "what is the current exchange rate from US dollars to Israeli Shekels?" or even "what time is candle lighting this Friday evening?" and they will tell you.

See, the way it works is, your question goes to one of ChaCha's many "guides" (people who ChaCha pays to answer questions). The guide performs a quick Google search for the answer, and sends it to your phone via text message. At the end of the answer is a web address that when accessed, shows your question, the answer, some info about the guide who gave the answer, and - here's the important part - a link to the site where the guide got the answer from.

So why am I mentioning all this? Because, like I said before, I am honored that ChaCha has begun to take notice of me. What I mean by that is that believe it or not, on more than one occasion, ChaCha guides have used MY humble blog as the source website for their answers! My blog has provided useful information (if that's even possible) for answering questions about everything from the major snowstorm in Jerusalem this past winter, to details of the aforementioned bris of Avraham Yeshayahu Feiner. So if that's not justification enough for wasting my time writing this thing, well, then I don't know what is.

So in closing, I would like to point out that I have suddenly become a much bigger fan of ChaCha than I already was, now that I see they're becoming bigger fans of me. I highly endorse (assuming I have the power to do that) ChaCha for all your mobile search needs.

But of course, one must weigh that against the fact that when asked recently what the Feiner baby's name is, a ChaCha guide replied: "The baby boy is named Tinok ben Aviva." So I guess maybe they aren't perfect, after all...

NOTE: Unfortunately, ChaCha only works in the USA, not in Israel or anywhere else.