Caterina Fake has a hunch. She is betting Internet users want help making decisions, and she thinks she can do a better job of offering advice than the flip of a coin, rock-paper-scissors, or even Yahoo Answers.
Fake, the founder of the popular photo-sharing site Flickr, launched her latest venture to help people answer questions like “What should I be for Halloween?”, “Do I need a Porsche?”, “Should I dump that loser?”, and “Is Phoenix a good place to retire?” The new Web site, Hunch.com, officially launched Monday.
“Hunch helps you make decisions and gives you results it wouldn’t give other people, getting smarter over time as more people use it. We would like it very much it if you would like it. We like it! So very much!” Fake said.
The Theory Behind the Hunch
In 10 questions or less, Hunch promises to offer a great solution to your problem, concern or dilemma. Hunch results are based on the collective knowledge of the Hunch community, and Hunch learns something new every time people use it.
The theory behind Hunch is based on research that shows decisions made by diverse and independent groups of people are often superior to those made by individuals — even experts. That’s because knowledge is often spread among many people. Hunch takes on the challenge of identifying it, collecting it, and effectively using it.
Colleges serve as one example. In a large group of people, almost everyone knows something about a college in their city, whether they attended or not. However, most of them aren’t experts in choosing a college. Hunch works on the premise that if you were able to collect and organize all the various pieces of individual knowledge that the overall group possesses, the result is a fairly complete picture of the topic. The same theory holds true…