by Patricia Mayo

ChaCha is a whole new beast of search. If you thought it was tough getting a regular search engine to spit out what you really need for certain queries - then be prepared for sheer torture with ChaCha.

That, my friends, is what proved “third try is a charm” completely, and utterly, wrong.

I asked ChaCha because I was having a hard time finding what I needed through regular search. Usually I figure that’s because I’m using the wrong words - so maybe the “search pros” at ChaCha could figure it out.

Well, that is - if they can figure out what I’m asking in the annoying 160 character limit without an ability to follow up with the last person who tried but failed.

So I reverted to the tried but true “monkey see, monkey do.” In my fifth and finally successful try, I said “see this? This is what I want, but free.” For that I could’ve used Google’s “sites like this” function, and that’s what I typically do - because ChaCha has always been this way for me.

What am I doing wrong here folks? Why can’t I get what I want out of ChaCha?

(By the way, I really do have a ChaCha t-shirt. Two, in fact. I have a special affection for them too, being they were my first “geek shirts.”)

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Trisha, @mayobrains on Twitter