ROK offers the ANSA

ROK Entertainment Group announced the U.S. launch of ANSA, a new question-and-answer text messaging service that costs $1 per answer.
A white-label offering ROK is selling to wireless carriers, ANSA (ansanow.com) delivers answers to mobile phone users via text messages for a $1 fee, plus any applicable messaging charges. Users can text a question (“What is the speed of light?” for example) to 83830 and ROK’s service will deliver the answer within 10 minutes. ROK said its responses are phrased succinctly and do not exceed the 160 character maximum length of a text message.
“If you’ve ever been on a bus, in a bar, or walking down the street and had a question pop into your head that you just had to have the answer to immediately, then ANSA is for you,” said Patrick Kearney, vice president of product development at ROK. “ANSA is a great service because it is simple, fun, and has practical value for a mobile consumer.”
ROK’s service relies on an automated database of answers to standard questions, but falls back on “experts” who can provide answers that are not covered by the database. Interestingly, Internet surfers can sign up to “become an expert” on ROK’s ANSA Internet site.
ANSA has been available in England since November, and the company is now expanding the service into the United States.
ROK, which offers a variety of content services including streaming video offerings, joins a crowded market for text messaging services. Google, 4INFO and others offer directory and information services-including weather forecasts, current stock prices and businesses’ addresses-via text messaging.