text questions to ChaCha & get answers

Have you heard of ChaCha yet? It's a place people can get answers (from real people) just by calling or texting.

It's a venue I personally think libraries should have been in LONG AGO, but alas, here we are.

I have a mixed review of ChaCha- I've used it a few times to see what it was like and only about 1/2 the time did i get an answer i liked. Perhaps I hold these things to a higher standard than most non-librarians would, but i wasn't totally impressed.

I WAS impressed, however, at HOW i could get an answer and HOW FAST it was. I'm in the grocery store wondering if peaches, apples, and carrots all have pectin in them and within minutes, I know that Apples have a lot of pectin, peaches have a little, and carrots have none. What would the response have been if i called my local library with that question? I couldn't have asked AskUsNow! because I was in the grocery store!

Betty@AACPL fwded a Marketplace Radio spot about ChaCha to the listserv: "Texting experts for an Internet search"

What are your thoughts on ChaCha and this method of Q&A?
I think it speaks greatly towards library's epic role- as information providers, question answerer's, search guides, and best friends... not just the collectors and purveyors of books (which is only ONE medium information comes in).