| Brad Bostic's Mobile Search and Technology Blog |
Mobile phones are becoming much more than social devices. People today often turn to their phones to find information and to be entertained. This blog tracks mobile innovation. (It's also where I carry on about ChaCha.)
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- Walt Discusses ChaCha in the WSJ and on CNBCApril 25
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ChaCha was featured today in the Personal Technology section of the Wall Street Journal. In this video, Walt talks about our mobile answers service. How does 1-800-2ChaCha work for you? Post a comment to let me know!
Answers in the palm of your hand, with Walter Mossberg, Wall Street Journal and CNBC's Michelle Caruso Cabrera - ChaCha Selected as Best New Mobile Service by AT&T at CTIAApril 4
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Yesterday was a big day for ChaCha at CTIA. Thanks to some outstanding work by the ChaCha team, we were selected by AT&T as the best new consumer mobile product in their fast-pitch competition. What does this mean?
We received $25,000 in prize money (giant "Happy Gilmore" style check being held by Kevin Mazzatta, VP of Biz Dev at ChaCha) and, much more importantly, we will be working with AT&T to introduce ChaCha to their customer base (about 70M folks). What a great way to kick-off the second quarter!
To win, ChaCha competed with hundreds of companies from around the world that applied. Only 66 were selected to present to the judges at CTIA and ChaCha was selected as the winner.The Fast-Pitch program is considered the wireless industry’s equivalent of American Idol, with emerging mobile technology companies presenting their wireless applications directly to AT&T’s decision makers. Hundreds of companies applied from around the world and were judged based on the following criteria:
1. Originality / Innovation
2. Market appeal
3. Interface de
- 1-800-2ChaCha Officially Launched at CTIAApril 1
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We are having a great show at CTIA so far. Please take a look at the following release from ChaCha regarding our 1-800-2ChaCha service (800-224-2242). Let me know what you think once you try it!
Regards,
--Brad
-------------Press Release-----------------------ChaCha’s Industry Breakthrough Makes Searching Easy
from Mobile Phones
Call 1-800-2-ChaCha. Ask in your own voice. Receive free answers by text.
LAS VEGAS, April 1, 2008 — From the scoop on the hottest martini bar on the Vegas strip to advice on where to buy the cheapest gas in Manhattan, ChaCha’s ingenious new
1-800-2-ChaCha (800-224-2242) mobile answers service allows mobile phone users to ask an extensive range of questions in conversational English while on the go — and the free answers are texted back within minutes.
The online and mobile search company is announcing its free new voice service today at the CTIA Wireless 2008 global convention in Las Vegas.
You can ask ChaCha almost anything:
·How much sodium is in a McDonald's Big Mac?
·What
- Headed to CTIA Las VegasMarch 31
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I made onto my Southwest airlines 737 this morning and will be departing to Las Vegas for CTIA shortly. This is my first trip out to this conference and I suspect it will be massive and loud -- full of new product announcements that both excite and under-whelm the attendees.
I am accompanied at CTIA by our (ChaCha's) head of business development Jay Highley and Kevin Mazzatta and Darin Leach who are also on the biz dev team.
We have a major announcement regarding ChaCha's mobile answers service coming tomorrow so please check back here to learn more!
Doors are closing - time to sign off. - What's Happening with Micro-Yahoo!?February 25
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As you all know, Microsoft made an offer to purchase Yahoo! on February 1 and that offer was rejected. It seems that the most commonly held view on the offer and subsequent rejection is that Yahoo! realizes just how badly Microsoft needs them and that Microsoft is willing (and obviously capable) of paying much more for the company.
What's at stake is a stake in the rapidly growing online advertising industry that some project will reach $80 billion by 2010. It's apparent that Yahoo! and Microsoft both need some kind of a spark if they expect to have any chance at competing with Google over the next several years in the online advertising and search markets.
So let's assume that Microsoft will ultimately prevail in taking out the once dominant Yahoo! What is going to happen to the employees? What about the products? Locations? Culture? Etc...? Following are some thoughts on these items based on what is being said among the senior ranks at Microsoft:
* Microsoft expects that, if and win Yahoo! agrees to the transaction, it will close in the second halof of 2008.
* The number one reason for the take-out bid is stated as, "the industry needs a more compelling alternative in search and online advertising."
* Microsoft believes the R&D talent that would pick up could help them better innovate to compete with Google.
* For agencies and advertisers this would result in a more eff
