ChaCha.com: a new Internet search with a human touch that wants to take on Google.

• Author: Hromadka, Erik
• Position: Cover story

SCOTT JONES EARNED HIS spot as Indiana's tech guru years ago ... but lately he's working like it's 1999.

With the same enthusiasm that spawned a new generation of Internet companies at the turn of the century, a group of some 30 employees in Carmel are busy creating Scott's new idea: a human-powered search engine called ChaCha.com.

In a crowded yellow house, crammed full of laptops, white boards and cases of Diet Mountain Dew, the staff of ChaCha is developing what Jones calls the next giant step in the evolution of the Internet--layering live human intelligence over computer-assisted search engines.

Entering an environment where Google dominates Internet search and battles giant corporations like Yahoo and Microsoft, it seems unlikely that a startup company from Indiana can compete to win. But that's exactly what Jones has in mind and he's managed to turn heads and open wallets in just a few months.

Still in experimental mode, ChaCha has already signed up more than 27,000 individuals to work as part-time guides since the site went live in September. That rapid growth generated some national press coverage and attention from investors. In January, the company announced $6 million in new funding led by the personal investment firm of Amazon.com creator Jeff Bezos.

Although that's an impressive start, Jones is looking to the future and envisioning much bigger things for ChaCha and the entire state of Indiana.

MIXING PEOPLE AND MACHINES

ChaCha, named after both the Chinese word for search and the fast-paced dance, symbolizes something that has long intrigued Jones--the interaction between man and machine.

While Jones made his mark on technology as the inventor of modern voice mail systems, he has always demonstrated an aptitude for using technology to mix people and machines. A graduate of North Central High School in Indianapolis, Jones went to Indiana University as a pre-med student, before shifting gears and deciding to major in computer science. After graduating in 1984, he moved to Boston and worked as a research scientist at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

At age 25, Jones co-founded Boston Technologies and patented voice mail systems that would be used by telephone companies around the world. He took advantage of a 1988 federal ruling that required regional phone companies to outsource voice-processing services and created scalable systems using dozens of personal computers and telecommunication switches to design a new way of leaving and retrieving voice messages. Boston Technologies went on to become a public company and its initial investors who bought shares for two cents each saw their value soar past $150 in the communications revolution of the 1990s.

In 1996, Jones returned to Indiana as a very Wealthy young man who could easily have retired and never worked again ... except that his idea of fun is creating new business ventures. Over the next 10 years, Jones invested his time, energy and money in several new companies that pioneered home entertainment technology, song recognition software for Internet music services and robotic vehicles that operate autonomously. He also created technology and venture funding groups in the state and has been active in promoting policy issue like Daylight Saving Time and direct flights to Indianapolis.

However, Jones may be launching his biggest project yet by taking a high-profile role in ChaCha.

HOW IT WORKS

There are two ways to search on ChaCha, a traditional search box where typing in a word, phrase or question generates results from across the Internet and a second option that allows users to...