ChaCha aka 242242 aka ChaCha aka 242242 is the Best Alt Search Engine in February '08

ChaCha was selected as the Search Engine of the Month by AltSearchEngines.com, a top-ranked blog that aspires to be 'the definitive destination for everything related to alternative search engines.' AltSearchEngines.com selects the monthly winner after compiling its ranking of the top 100 Alternative Search Engines at the beginning of each month. And that's no easy task. AltSearchEngines' editor, Charles Knight, tracks no fewer than 1,000 search contenders in all search engine categories (general or meta search, jobs, health, MP3s, people, games, charity, etc...).

ChaCha, which was AltSearchEngine's Search Engine of the Year for 2006, was chosen for the February 2008 title for their mobile phone text service launched last month that features the catchy SMS code, 242242. Other 'guided' or 'human powered' alternative search engines listed in the Top 100 Alternative Search Engines for February 2008 include Mahalo.com and Bessed.com.

ChaCha's SMS code, 242242, has taken on a life of its own since ChaCha's mobile answer service launched in early January. (In late January, ChaCha completed an aggressive round of defensively registering a multitude of typo-variants of 242242.com. That ChaCha-owned domain - 242242.com - redirects to ChaCha.com.) The 242242 moniker is now omnipresent in the world of ChaCha. On the blog of ChaCha's President and co-founder Brad Bostic, it is difficult to discern which is really the brand of his company, 242242 or ChaCha. 242242 is plastered everywhere Brad blogs and speaks and that's no different on blogs that report on trends in numeric domains. NuDom bloggers are wondering when will Brian - I mean Brad - make the bold marketing move of announcing 242242.com as the alternative web address for ChaCha.com on mobile phones or the PC. THAT move would guarantee ChaCha's place as the Top Alternative Search Engine for 2008, at least in our book.