Perhaps Andrew Belonsky should stop being such a racist cultural chauvinist and recognize that mobile apps do not have to be designed solely for the tastes of rich, white elitists from the Northeast in order to have value.
I found this interesting..........
Unlike Siri, which gets its answers from a cocktail of Internet databases, such as Wolfram Alpha, Yelp, and Google, Iris is fed “information” directly from ChaCha, which is powered by what the company calls “Guides.” ChaCha pays, giving its “Specialist Guides” between $.10 and $.20 per answer, transcribers $.02 per question and “vetters,” who verify the answers, $.01 a pop. It might not sound like much, but given how easy the job is — and myriad YouTube videos confirm the simplicity of the job — guides claim to make somewhere in the $2 to $8 per hour range.
The training for these positions takes only a few hours and involves filling out a form, watching some videos, taking a “very easy” online test with database cheat sheet and submitting a tax form. After that, Guides work on their own schedules, answering away. “You can login whenever you want! You can login at 3 in the morning and answer questions.” Anyone can do it.