• TechCrunch, Tuesday, April 1, 2008 12 PM

Michael Arrington openly admits that he enjoys trash-talking ChaCha, the Carmel, Indiana-based startup that aimed to provide human-powered desktop search results. So the fact that ChaCha is all but dismantling its desktop search for a strictly mobile service comes as no surprise to him. "They announced that guided search will be discontinued in favor of the one product they offer that isn't monumentally dumb--mobile search," he says.

In reality, ChaCha desktop search will still exist, but instead of chat window-style dialogues with paid guides, users will get their answers in the form of a text link (dubbed Desktop Answers). Meanwhile, ChaCha Mobile allows users to text a query in, have a human find the results, and then get a text message back. The model seems quite effective for people who don't have mobile Web access and are in need of quick restaurant or other local business info.

In an email that ChaCha sent to its (soon to be unemployed) desktop guides, the company touted the success of the mobile application, and invited them to reapply for gigs as mobile guides. "Thanks to the success of our Mobile (SMS) Answers, our new users are growing at a staggering rate every day as our loyal customers spread the word about ChaCha. [And] repeat users are addicted to texting ChaCha," the email said.

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