Twelve days ago ChaCha, a controversial search engine that uses humans to answer search queries, rolled out a mobile version of the service. Ask it anything via text message, and they’ll send you an answer in a few minutes.
I tried the service once to test it, and haven’t used it since. But today I received a text message from them saying “Ever wish you could actually know everything? Now you do. Just text another questions to 242242 (ChaCha) for the answer now.”
This is pure spam, sent without my request or permission. Text spam is horrid – not only does every message actually cost the recipient money, but you can’t specifically block specific addresses like you can with email.
Text spam is coming to the U.S. (and anyone who’s lived in Europe already knows all about it), but for a respectable, venture funded company to do this is inexcusable. For anyone who tried the service based on my post about it, I apologize.
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