New from Live Search: Search And Give…
Whether it’s your local school or an effort to find a cure, Search and Give will donate a penny each time you use this page to search the Web.
How does it work?
Sign in to select a charity or school (this is easy)
Start searching from the Search & Give home page
Live Search will make the donation
Champion your cause with something you do every day – search the Web.
So far, Search And Give has raised nearly $350,000.
In the article “The Future of Customer Service” on msnbc.com (from – Entrepreneur.com), writer Sarah Pierce looks at the impact of the Internet and now-ubiquitous mobile technology on consumer expectations of customer service. We’ve come a long way in the last few years since PC World’s report a couple of years ago that found “one in four online merchants either don’t, won’t, or didn’t answer basic product questions.” But apparently there is still room for improvement.
Pierce notes that online chat and instant messaging systems have helped to connect customers eager to get some face time (or would that be screen time?) with knowledgeable customer service representatives and solve a variety of technical problems and answer their questions. According to Nielson Mobile, more than 46 million people in the U.S. used mobile search just between July and September 2007.
“Whether it’s information on a product, questions about a service or simple driving directions, consumers want answers, and they want them now.”
I don’t think that the desire to get an answer ‘now’ is any different than it has been in the past. My assumption is that we expect more as we are doing so many things and ultimately have more demands on our waking hours. đ
Back to our story. In this piece, Pierce takes a quick look at ChaCha, a web-based search and mobile text answering service that allows you to text 242242 (‘ChaCha’) on your SMS phone and get answers to your text questions from a <gasp> real, live person.
ChaCha is the brainchild of serial innovator Scott Jones, the man behind Boston Technology (the voicemail system company) and Gracenote (originally Escient), a behind-the-scenes company that provides the Gracenote MusicID service to many providers, allowing the automagical recognition of CDs, digital music and streaming audio. (A personal note: Ty Roberts of Jam Session fame and my old friend Jim Hollingsworth from ReplayTV are both execs at Gracenote.) Scott has 17 patents pending for ChaCha.
ChaCha’s search engine is provided by InfoSpace, and returns results from a number of different search engines, including Google, Yahoo! Search and Ask.com. (Also visit the ChaCha Underground page to see the most recent ChaCha results.)
“It’s sort of like asking a really smart friend, except at the end of the day, you can ask anything and get an accurate answer,” says [Brad] Bostic [co-founder of ChaCha.com, a people-powered search engine that, unlike Google, uses real people to provide search results]. To test it, Bostic suggests asking an obscure question, such as whether or not camels have eyelids. The answer, three eyelids, is delivered within two minutes, followed by a single link to the source web page.
“Other mobile services like Yahoo! oneSearch, Google Mobile and 4INFO.net, use an analog search engine that provides a convoluted list of web links or answers, forcing the consumer to dig around for the answer they need.”
Let’s put that to the test.
First, what’s an ‘analog search engine’? Is that like the analogue recordings record albums, grainy 35mm films and cassette tapes? đ
To start my quite unscientific test, I used the traditional Internet version of the ChaCha service, using a ChaCha guide.
For my query, I typed in “what is Microsoft’s customer support phone number in South America?”
Whoops:
Contrary to IE’s advice, I clicked thru to the ChaCha web page, and found that I had to register for a new ChaCha account. Registering will give me “access to searching with live guided experts and other great features of ChaCha.”
OK, done.
Now, another couple of minutes to check my email for an activation email that allows me to verify your account. Unfortunately the resulting confirmation mail was found in my Junk mail folder, so some work to do here as I have my spam filter set to a very basic level. ;(
After confirming that I had a valid email address, I was able to quickly log on to the service.
I was welcomed to a “Guide Session” with Michelle. After welcoming me to ChaCha and asking how I was, Michelle went about finding an answer to my question. Assuming that this pretexting was a strategy to engage the customer and buy Michelle some time, I received an update to the real-time status noting that “Michelle has found results!”
Quickly, the links popped up in the right-hand nav of the web page. So, after only a couple of minutes, Michelle found the information I asked for, including this accurate one on TechNet.
“There ya go,” typed Michelle.
In my own effort, I found a link to the phone numbers on the Microsoft International Support using the Live Search Toolbar in just a few seconds. I’ll admit that — as is often the case — you do have to hunt and peck for an answer through pages of search results to find the answer. But often times the answer is in the top few results, and this result was in the top three.
As a further comparison, I entered the obscure question that Bostic suggested and quickly found the answer in a few seconds on my mobile device, using Live Search Mobile. The answer was also displayed in the query search results on Live Search:
OK, one more shot. To try my best at a ChaCha version of stump the band, I asked a more obscure question as a follow up:
Howstuffworks “Do the humps on camels hold water?”
Do the humps on camels hold water? … maturity in five years, a female in three to four years. Camels actually have three eyelids!
“Where can I find an English owner’s manual for the Sony DVP-CX850D?”
It took ChaCha about 15 seconds to find a guide to help me with this search. My new guide, Sakina, asked: “Hello I will be helping you with your search? Just to clarify, what can I help you find today?”
I retyped my original question in plain English: “I am looking for an English owner’s manual for the Sony DVP-CX850D CD DVD player.”
Sakina is connected and finding results for you. Your results will begin to appear below.
Each ChaCha guide has a ChaCha ID number, and Sakina’s was 53363. First, ChaCha’s Sakina found the service manual for the Sony player, which also comes up in many search engine results. But Sakina wasn’t done.
Sakina took just a couple minutes more to find the manual on Sony’s US site (which is not obvious, let me tell you) at Sony eSupport for the DVP-CX850D. (In case you have one of these old tried and true multi-disc changer/players, the manual is available here for direct download as a PDF.)
Results
- Service Manual free download,schematics,datasheets,eeprom bins,pcb,repair info for test equipment and electronics – Sponsored Listing. This link has been recommended by a ChaCha Guide and Certified through our GuideRank process. ChaCha brings human power to search results.
http://www.eserviceinfo.com/index.php?what=search2&searchstring=DVP-CX850D
- Sony eSupport – DVP-CX850D – Manuals / Specs / Warranty – DVP-CX850D
This link has been recommended by a ChaCha Guide and Certified through our GuideRank process. ChaCha brings human power to search results. http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=DVPCX850D
A little under ten minutes, Sakina wished me a nice day and we were done, with search results in hand (so to speak). Both were “ChaCha Guide Recommended Results” — the first I noticed was a sponsored listing. Not only are the search results listed on the results page, but they are also saved under “My Searches” in your ChaCha account, remaining there for 60 days.
I was given the opportunity to rate my guide, and I gave Sakina a “great” rating.
And overall a thumbs-up on ChaCha based on this limited experience. Once again, the power of a community to provide better service.
As a side note, I found this manual before Sakina did in a little under a minute using Windows Live Search.
Overall, I find that web search (no matter which engine you use) is much better as a whole than I have experienced in the past, as companies continue innovate and refine their services.
But wait… there’s more. (with a nod to Ron Popiel)
On Scott’s blog in his post titled The phone number that changed the worldâŚ, he invites readers to “try experimental 1-800-224-2242 from your mobile phone. ChaCha for your mobile phone, which returns results via a text message.
In short, it just works. Try it… it’s very cool.
As noted on the Live Search blog last fall, the Search team focused on some key areas to improve:
“We pored over your feedback, analyzed the data and talked to thousands of users. How major is this? It’s our biggest update since our debut in January 2005.”
For complex issues, ChaCha may be a step up, with 30,000 live, trained guides (each complete “a special training program called Search University to ensure their answers are as accurate and locally sensitive as possible”) to answer questions.
In addition to the comprehensive corporate support websites that many manufacturers offer today, many companies offer online chat support. These sites go beyond the basic hunt and peck approach for finding old manuals, drivers and FAQs. I’ve written here about Dell’s online customer service and support, having successfully used Dell’s Hardware Chat to diagnose and get repair tickets submitted for hardware issues. And I’ve personally had success with HP’s online support options and (as a customer) Microsoft online customer service and live chat.
(A plug, in case you missed the link: Microsoft Online Chat is available for customers in the States Monday through Friday, 11 AM to 8 PM (Eastern); international customers, please visit our Microsoft Worldwide page to choose from our Microsoft sites worldwide.)
Some manufacturers are including real time systems built-in to their products. Aside from the diagnostics packages and software built into many computers these days, I read in gizmodo’s CES coverage of the Sharp press conference of the new Aquos Net. With it, customers can get online customer support via the Aquos Advantage Live tool: Sharp customer service agents connect directly to the TV and remotely optimize picture quality or diagnose problems. Very cool.
You may also find the answer you’re looking for with a rudimentary Wiki search, which you can simply do by entering the search term in your favourite engine and appending the word “+wiki” at the end. More often than not, this will turn up any Wikipedia articles on the topic, as my son found whilst researching Admiral Byrd.
More info:
Tags: Microsoft, Customer Service, Customer Support, Windows, Search.
And I thought that it was a chore to digitize our papers at home… that’s nothing as compared to the effort to scan 25 million pages…
Raissa Kasolowsky from Reuters reports here on one project associated with the Live Search Books effort. The article calls out some of the challenges of adding content online, as a team at the British Library in London “is working 14 hours a day to scan shelf upon shelf of books.”
“Launched a year ago, the project will scan 25 million carefully preserved pages of the British Library’s 19th-century archive, around 100,000 books, over the next two years. Together with collections from other libraries including Yale and Cornell University, the pages are destined for Live Search Books, Microsoft’s answer to Google Book Search.
“When we are able to do a better job of answering people’s questions we are going to build loyalty and then ultimately increase the size of our user community,” said Cliff Guren, Microsoft Director of Publisher Evangelism…
Full story at globeandmail.com: “In Microsoft vs. Google, search is still master“
Bloggers and the press are out in force at CES in Las Vegas, tonite covering Bill Gates’ keynote at CES 2008. You can find several entries listed here. Check out video coverage at Microsoft’s CES site and on Microsoft PressPass.
[More on the keynote from MS.com: On Monday, Jan. 7, the transcript from the keynote address will be posted on PressPass, along with an online media kit. Click here to subscribe to PressPass via RSS. If you are in Vegas, Microsoft’s booth is 7144 in the Central Hall of the LVCC.]
So far, it’s just like being in Vegas, but with out the 24-hour flashing neon, long cab and restaurant lines, sleepy booth jockeys and uncomfortable hotels… and all from the comfort of my own home with free broadband access.
And much quieter, too.
Our very own MSN Tech & Gadgets has a dedicated CES page along with the their spaces blog with posts from staff in Vegas (with the first photos of Playboy Bunnies, Hulk Hogan and tasers…;). Engadget has great coverage on a CES-optimized page for their readers. Daisuke Wakabayashi at Reuters covered the keynote as did Joseph Menn from the LA Times, and many blogger reports from CES here.
[Added 010708: Here’s a good summary of the keynote from first-time Gates keynote attendee Brian Heater on Gearlog.com, which also has CES product coverage.]
Todd Bishop of the Seattle PI newspaper has an active Microsoft blog and tonite provides an overview of one of the keynote items: partnerships with content providers “including one with NBC to put video of the upcoming Olympics [see below] in Beijing exclusively on Microsoft’s MSN site.” He also notes the deal with MGM Studios to offer movies on Xbox Live Video, as well as with ABC Television, the Disney Channel offering programming from their channels.
Marc has a quick synopsis on his blog, and Mary Jo Foley has a few points on Gatesâ last CES keynote, which she said was ‘Long on sales claims, short on futures…’ She also notes here that Microsoft has announced a new sales milestone for Windows Vista: 100 million retail copies sold…
“The company made the announcement via an article, which includes answers to reader questions by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, published by the BBC on Sunday…”
Want to ask Bill a question? You can pose your own questions to Mr. Gates, so to speak, as posted on tech-buzz: Billg invited readers (of the BBC News) “to send him questions about his life and career. This invitation has been extended to readers from all over the world, and the timing could not have been more apt. You can send him questions on his life and career here.” The beeb will select some of the best questions and post the answers courtesy of Billg on their website and via television.
Also cool is the announcement that our Internet Protocol Television technology (IPTV) ‘Mediaroom’ is on more than a million set-top boxes worldwide. (As Bishop notes, IPTV technology delivers TV signals over phone lines.) No mention of any new Xbox 360 hardware yet.
C’mon… VUDU is listing their new XL for nearly a grand US (which is what, C$99 these days?;) and will debut their new Vudu XL movie vault that will hold “up to 500 full-length SD standard movies.” (Thanks, betanews.) Surely we’ll see some more great announcements on the Media Center front when it comes to content and home theaters, right?
Now, back to the keynote: Todd Bishop also sat down and interviewed Billg just before the keynote where…
“Gates talked about the future of technology and discussed his plans as he prepares to go part time at the company later this year. He also defended Microsoft’s year-old Windows Vista operating system from critics and credited Nintendo’s Wii game console for its approachability — saying he expects Microsoft to “match that and do better.”
[Note: IMHO, “match that and do better” for starters should equal an Xbox 360 with a much quieter fan and disc drive than I have today in my black Xbox 360 Elite. Another note: smaller and durable is also a good thing, too: to our boy’s delight, we traveled over the winter break with a Wii in my laptop carry-on bag, which included a laptop as well, power supply in the checked bag.]
At this yearâs keynote, Ian Dixon posted here that Billg and Robbie Bach from E&D covered Vista customers (over 100 million served), Window Live bits, Surface, Silverlight, Xbox Live and Mediaroom (IPTV), Samsung’s new Media Center Extender and how in the UK customers will find the “the Xbox 360 as a IPTV client.” Add to that the numbers game: 10 million members strong on Xbox Live; 17.7 million Xbox 360 consoles sold so far (as x3sphere posted here); and 420 million Windows Live users worldwide.
And another number: Gizmodo covers the 3,600 hours of the 2008 Olympic Games on MSN in Silverlight…
“Bill Gates (and Bob Costas) announced that NBC would broadcast 3,600 hours of games from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics via MSN on the nbcolympics.com site. The video will be both live and on demand, with over 30 simultaneous live broadcasts. The cool thing is that finally, people who love ridiculous games like the hammer toss will get their fix, without upsetting the basketball fans who wouldn’t dare allow for a pre-emption.”
(Silverlight is a relatively small download: a whopping 2.6 MB which took less than a minute to install on my machine.)
As reported on Engadget, Zune will finally say ‘eh’ as it’s soon to be launched in Canada: perhaps I can then find some more Nash the Slash and Jane Siberry on Zune, too. I hope that they do this before the next general election or no later than Canada Day: friends up north shouldn’t have to endure another Zuneless summer.
Todd Bishop also offers an edited transcript of the interview in his post — good reading — in addition to coverage of the keynote address here, as Gates came on stage with Slash, lately of of ‘Guitar Hero III’ fame…
“The night ended with Microsoft executive Robbie Bach challenging Gates to a “Guitar Hero” duel. After Bach brought out a “Guitar Hero” champion to stand in for him on the old Guns N’ Roses tune “Welcome to the Jungle,” Gates said he had a ringer, too: Slash, the former Guns N’ Roses guitarist…”
Mary Jo also posted that…
“the only truly futuristic technology that Gates showed during his hour-plus CES appearance was a piece of visual-recognition software under development by Microsoft Research that, some day, may be integrated into cell phones and other devices…
“I was hoping Gates would pull a Steve Jobs and say at the very end of his remarks, âWe have one more thingâŚâ and show off Windows Live âHorizonâ or a sneak peek of Windows Mobile 7, or the âPink and Purpleâ projectâs Zune phone, or â heck, even just a glimpse of âFiji.â
Hey, Mary Jo… it’s the early start to a long week. Give it time. đ
For our sons: Engadget provides a video look Guitar Wizard. Our kids are big on Guitar Hero on Xbox, and now the makers of the big hit at our house this Christmas — I Can Play Guitar from Mattel — have this new teaching tool showing at CES. Add to this Max is in his first year of real guitar lessons and Music Wizard’s Guitar Wizard looks like a great learning tool. (More info here.)
More info:
Tags: Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates, Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft Corp., Gate, Microsoft Windows, CES 2008, Windows Live, Windows XP, Windows Mobile, Zune, Xbox, Xbox Live, Windows 7, Software, Consumer Electronics.
I enjoy Angus Logan’s blog, in particular, a recent post on what to do when you’re drowning in email. But his new post calls out a great function on how to use Live Search to tell the time in <random city you have no idea where>.
“I always find myself trying to figure out what time zone a city is in;
“And [Live Search is] smart too â it can tell the difference between Brisbane & Sydney in Australia (both GMT+1000) but one has DST and the other doesnât.”
That’s a cool feature.
Unfortunately, Live Search isn’t up to date on their time zones. Neither is Google. (Reminds me of an old song by Morris Day and The Time… I’m showing my age.)
For example, I ran a search on “time Argentina” on both Live.com and Google.com: both displayed the incorrect time:
When I ran the search (at 11:31 PM Pacific) it was actually 5:31 AM in Argentina (not that I actually called anyone there to verify), not 4:31 AM as shown: the searched returned the incorrect results for countries that have had recent DST and TZ changes. Argentina just made the change on December 30 (as I noted here), when the country adopted a new DST offset of -0200 UTC.
I also tried the search out with one of the latest changes (this one from a favourite, memorable series on one particular South American country that had some difficulty deciding on when to make the change):
Unfortunately the time quoted is incorrect, off by 30 minutes. There is a new cumulative Windows OS update which includes the correct time for Venezuela. In this case, Venezuela is -0430 UTC as of mid December (they have a new DST in effect, as noted noted in this post).
Tags: Microsoft, Daylight Saving Time, Daylight Savings Time, DST. 4,020,000; 10,600,000; 649,000+
