Hiogi Mobile Search via Skype and community Q&A

by: Bena Roberts Monday, November 10th, 2008

Bjorn Behrendt from hiogi a new Q and A style mobile search company in Berlin asked me to Beta Test the new services. Of course, I forgot so when I received the press release today I took a quick look around, signed up and got familiar with the services.

Now, I really really wanted to like hiogi. Why? Well it’s a German business Bjorn was very nice and I love mobile search.

So was I disappointed?
Hmm. I don’t think disappointed is the right word. I signed up with ease. I asked a question with ease. I set my background and my picture with ease. I only got one “hiogi” for signing up (it’s like a token incentive scheme that the community is run on).

Basically you can earn points for prizes and asking and answering questions or getting other friends to sign up. I felt that one point for sign up was a bit mean.

Then it also said, “free sign-up”. This is fine but during the sign-up process you have send an SMS – this means you pay for the SMS which means that the sign-up isn’t exactly free.

So, then I asked my first question,

“What is the best city in Germany?”
Now. This is a German business and I checked most of the users were in Germany so I expected some war to erupt with people saying Munich over Hamburg or Leipzig vs Berlin.

But all I got was the crappiest “we have lots of nice cities in Germany”…..

So then I tried a question – I am seriously considering moving to Heidelberg from Rheinboellen because Rheinboellen is full of backward farmers and Heidelberg has 3 English schools and the highest % of expats (US and UK) in Germany. But I wasn’t sure if there was a Heidelberg airport or someone said something about Baden Baden.

So I asked the questions, “What is the nearest airport to Heidelberg?” This time I got a response in German – and an excellent one with buses and trains and all sorts of things.

So –the second factual answer was actually very informative and the response less than 5 minutes was probably fair and easier than if I was searching online for it.

But the only other fly in the ointment is that I couldn’t find how to sign up for the Skype service. I must be being incredibly dim because I only saw an SMS sign-up page. It says in the press release “add your Skype name to the site” but I just can’t find it!

Anyway – I think that I will use hiogi for questions in and around Germany – the tighter or more factual the question the response might actually be worth it. It is still early days and I recommend that you sign up and see for yourself.

www.hiogi.com …. mention benaroberts sent you because I want my hoigis!