ChaCha, a human-driven Q&A; search service, launched new functions for local businesses this wee. Now users can get information for more than 15 million businesses in the U.S.
“Across all platforms – mobile (SMS), online and now Facebook – we are up to nearly 20 million unique users per month,” a ChaCha representative told Web Pro News. “Our run rate over the past several months has [averaged] 15 million uniques per month. The user base is split almost half male, half female – with over 80% of users between ages 13 and 24. We also answer over 1 million questions per day, and over 400 million answers have been served.”
With the number of ways to access local business information going up, it’s interesting to know what ChCha will bring to the table that can’t be found on other sources.
“Unique User benefits on ChaCha were the deeper questions, answers and info about the businesses, and in the future, the ability to get mobile coupons, join a businesses mobile lists, get discounts and more,” she said. “These are the ChaCha value-adds over other sources, and features and content will continue to expand.”
So far 2010 has been a big year for local search. Most of which came from search engine giant Google, which can make for some strong competition for anyone. Google started showing mobile users “nearby places,” which allows businesses to post announcements/coupons on their Places Pages, which will also show reviews from more sources, tailoring mobile search recommendations to location and even recommending competitors for local business searches.