Hacktastic!

In March, I started working for a human-powered search engine. I answer questions from real people.

Yes, exactly the kind of questions you are imagining.

All the questions I post come from real people, usually from their cell phones. They are published exactly as I received them (although I have removed their signatures).

Here is how my job works.

People send questions to my search engine by either texting them from their phones or calling and recording the question. In the latter case, the question is then written out by an Interpreter. The questions from both processes are then sent to a Dispatcher, which is what I do.

My job  is to deal with the question as quickly as possible and sort out the bullshit so the Researchers don’t have to look at it. I’ve got three minutes to decide what I’m going to do with each one, but most do not take that long. I have a lot of methods at my disposal for answering the questions myself.

• Previous Question Responses: this is a database of answers to questions that have already been asked. A selection of them are chosen based on the wording of the question, the goal being that one of them matches the question well enough to be reused.
• Seekers: these are a series of look up tools for quick requests. They’re for things like movie showings, weather, business addresses, sports scores, and horoscopes.
• Keywords: the search engine has a series of keyword requests for things like jokes, trivia, and life tips. These are pretty much one-click answers.
• Handwritten answers: these are usually for conversational type questions or statements. I can write out my own answer in response. I only have 250 characters with which to dispense my glorious wisdom.

In the event that the question cannot be answered with any of those, I then rewrite the question so it’s not worded stupidly (as they usually are) and then categorize it so that a Researcher can find the answer.

I earn two points per question. How much each point is worth in money depends on how many points are earned by Answerers as a whole. The more points earned, the more each point is worth. There is a quota hierarchy thing in place for that, but there’s no way to know exactly how much they’ll be worth until the end of the month. There are other ways to earn extra money (like working during certain hours, answering a certain number of questions in a day, or answering Surprise Questions), but that’s how the base pay is determined.