Jason Calacanis's funny money
With Mahalo Answers, the latest Web project from Brooklyn-born blog blowhard Jason Calacanis, you can pay people to Google for you with fictional bucks. Genius!
ChaCha, the lonely search engine, waits for a text message
Hoosier-powered search engine ChaCha has unveiled a feature developed with the help of $2 million in Indiana state funds: mobile-phone-based searches. Scott Jones, the serial entrepreneur behind ChaCha, would like everyone to believe that this is a whole new category of search. Actually, it's something Google has…
ChaCha turns Indiana University into its billboard
Hoosier-powered search engine Chacha is turning to an unlikely source to fund its already cozy deal with Indiana University. Chacha is introducing Google AdSense ads to the university's search results. ChaCha already features both Google and Yahoo ads as sponsored links, on its public search, but until recently IU had…
Boldly searching where no man has searched before
The startup has released a Star Trek-themed search toolbar for Web browsers. Every search made through the toolbar means a donation to the production of Star Trek: New Voyages. The fan series is better-produced than the original series it honors, but it cranks out episodes at a glacial pace: three episodes in as many…
Entrepreneur backs politician, politician backs his startups
Scott Jones, serial entrepreneur, has received an additional $8 million in funding from Mort Meyerson, formerly of Perot Systems and EDS, for his startup ChaCha. You'd think with such wealthy backers, Jones wouldn't have to tap the public till. But no: ChaCha was recently granted $2 million from Indiana's 21st…
Hoosier daddy? Indiana reporter trades university beat for university job
When we first began to cover the many close relationships between flauntrepreneur Scott Jones's ChaCha search engine and Indiana University, the Indiana Herald-Times was one of the few local newspapers to closely question the relationship. Steve Hinnefeld of the Herald-Times was even following Valleywag's coverage,…
Indiana University and ChaCha's Scott Jones have same idea
Remember ChaCha, the "human-powered" search engine based in Indiana with curiously deep — and poorly disclosed — ties to local power brokers? Now, Indiana University contends its decision to select human-assisted search engine ChaCha had nothing to do with those ties. University president and former ChaCha board…
ChaCha searches for political clout
We'd heard of state birds, but official state websites? Yes. Mitch Daniels, Indiana's governor, helped select human-powered search engine ChaCha as the state's official website. He also played a role in conscripting Indiana University staff as unpaid "guides" for ChaCha. Now it's time for Scott Jones, CEO and…
ChaCha supporters circle the wagons
Boosterism is a proud middle-American tradition, deftly parodied by Garrison Keillor. But even a fabulist like Keillor would be hard-pressed to come up with townspeople as self-satisfied and uncritical as the boosters of Bloomington, Indiana, who have stood relentlessly behind local search startup ChaCha. Despite the …
A high-tech CEO's Midwestern megamanse
Scott Jones, CEO of search engine ChaCha, has built a high-tech wonderland of a mansion in central Indiana to rival any abode in Silicon Valley. The 27,000 sq. ft. English country manor, selected by HGTV as the No. 1 home in America, melds old-world charm with a hardcore nerd's wet dreams. Amenities include the…
Controversy keeps growing in IU-ChaCha deal
The Herald-Times of Bloomington, Indiana has followed up (subscription required) on our previous story questioning the Indiana University-ChaCha deal. The local paper's charitable conclusion: Neither side lied, but both independently made contradictory "inadvertent errors." As did the newspaper, in reporting on a new…
Search engine flack can't find her spin
In the comments to my piece raising questions about the deal between Indiana University and "human-powered" search engine ChaCha, PR flack Liza Dittoe says she'd like to point out some "errors." By which we assume she means her client's copious mistakes. Oh, but "inadvertent mistakes," she says. How exactly does a CFO…
ChaCha scandal leaves SEC searching for the truth
Indiana University's decision to partner with "human-powered" search engine ChaCha shouldn't have been controversial. ChaCha's based in Indiana and was founded by two IU alumni. Universities often have ties to local startups. Did anyone question Stanford's use of Google, or a professor's investment in the company? No,…
Is one of these eight search engines the next Google? (Hint: No.)
NICK DOUGLAS — When I hear someone saying they're the next Google, I wonder: Does this shit happen in other industries? Does Bob sit around Bob's Boise Brewery and say "I'm gonna make the next Bud Light! Yep! Bob Light, baby!" Actually, that probably happens. But that doesn't help the odds of these wannabe…
