Indianapolis, IN - May 15, 2008 - ChaCha announced today that it has been named a Finalist in three separate categories of The 2008 American Business Awards - Most Innovative Company, Best New Company and Best New Product or Service. Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars” (New York Post, April 27, 2005), The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.
More than 2,600 entries from companies of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted for consideration in more than 40 categories, including Best Overall Company, Best Executive, Best New Product or Service and Best Corporate Social Responsibility Program.
“It is a great honor to be recognized by the American Business Awards and especially in three different categories,” said ChaCha Co-Founder and CEO, Scott A. Jones. “To be nominated in the Most Innovative Company category is particularly gratifying for all the great people at ChaCha who are continually working to innovate and expand our ground breaking mobile answers service. There’s nothing like it in the marketplace and its great to see that our business peers recognize it, too!”
“ABA entries grew more than 30% this year, so being named a Finalist is more of an accomplishment than ever before,” said Michael Gallagher, founder and president of The Stevie Awards. “It means that independent business executives have agreed that the nominee is worthy of national recognition. We congratulate all of the Finalists on their achievement and wish them well in the competition.”
Members of the Awards’ Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs will select Stevie Award winners from among Finalists in final judging during the week of May 19. Finalists were chosen by business professionals nationwide during preliminary judging in April through early May.
Stevie Award winners will be announced during the annual gala on Thursday, June 12 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. More than 600 executives from across the U.S.A. are expected to attend. The ceremonies will be broadcast on radio nationwide by the Business TalkRadio Network and hosted by Liz Claman of FOX Business Network.
ChaCha has been experiencing excellent market validation with a string of awards honoring their innovation and revolutionary service:
In late April, ChaCha was named one of the “Fierce 15″ companies of 2008 by FierceWireless, the online news authority for the wireless industry, reflecting ChaCha’s creativity and innovation in the wireless marketplace. ChaCha also won the prestigious AT&T Fast-Pitch Platinum Award in April for best consumer mobile application at the CTIA Wireless Association Convention in Las Vegas. In March, ChaCha took top prize in the “My Search is Better than Your Search” competition at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Manhattan, and was also ranked as the “No. 1 Alternative Search Engine” in February by Charles Knight of the blogging network, ReadWriteWeb.
About ChaCha
ChaCha, a free mobile answers service, allows users to call 1-800-2ChaCha&tm; or text questions to ChaCha (242242&tm;) on mobile phones and receive answers within minutes. ChaCha expert Guides-trained and skilled individuals-use ChaCha’s powerful internal patent-pending search tools to respond to any query. For more information about ChaCha’s newest features, go to www.chacha.com. Created by serial entrepreneur Scott A. Jones (www.scottajones.com) and Brad Bostic (http://blog.bradbostic.com), ChaCha is funded by Bezos Expeditions, the personal investment firm of Jeff Bezos; Morton Meyerson, former President and Vice Chairman of EDS as well as Chairman and CEO of Perot Systems; Rod Canion, founding CEO of Compaq Computer; and Jack Gill, well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist.
About The Stevie Awards
Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars,” Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring companies of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.
