Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

There’s this new website out there called hunch.com.  It’s developed by an 11 person team, made up of a crew of MIT computer scientists and the co-founder of flickr, so it isn’t like it’s being put together by some 12 year old and her gaggle of giggling girlfriends. (Or so we hope).  And it’s pretty much the tech-ed up version of the ole magic 8 ball.  Minus all the shaking.  You know… “Should I ask that hot girl from Accounting out on a date?”  “Should I take that new job offer?”  “Do I look fat in these pants?”  Well, maybe not the “fat in these pants” one…Hunch may have some tact.

Invite Only

It’s in invite mode right now, but they promise it will be “coming soon” to full regular mode.  I got my invitation, signed up, and decided to see what it was all about.  From the “About the Site” page, it had sounded kind of interesting, though I still wasn’t quite convinced how this could really actually work and give me advice I’d want to follow any more than shaking a plastic ball.  They say they take information from questions they ask you, and use that to formulate advice (or “hunches”) as to what might be the best answer for whatever question you are posing. 

How it works

So, I sign up and log in (very easily done by the way), and there is a box right on the upper right hand corner of the home page to start answering questions to give the Hunch-master an idea about what makes Jodie tick I suppose.  I’m sure my boyfriend would tell them good luck with that.  They asked all sorts of questions, from leading off with what kind of area do I live in to what do I think of Wal-Mart.  And for those that maybe are a tad challenged with reading the answers they supply to pick from, they even offer little pictures next to each answer to help you in your selection.

And just so you know how you compared to other Hunch users, they tell you for many of the questions “72% of respondents also chose that answer!” or “4% of respondents also chose that answer!” (where I feel like it should be followed with…“You freaking reject! Why did you pick THAT?? Duh!”  and a stupid face emoticon.  Although this one asking about where I’d get my furniture cracked me up.  Gotta love the last choice.

I decided it was time to give it the old college try.  You could either go to the categories page and browse a list of topics (check out the photo below), or, on the home page it offers up “Featured Topics” .  I guessed this was where you could pick one that you liked as well and get it to answer for YOU.  So, I picked one.  Since I didn’t see one offering up advice on how to have Ed McMahon show up at my door with the Prize Patrol within 24 hours, and since I like to read, I went with “Which book author should I read?” 

Mark Twain is a niche author?

It takes me to a screen asking me some more questions.  Ok, so they didn’t claim to be Madame IKnowAll, and they need some background.  So, first, it asked me if I was looking for a blockbuster author or a more niche author.  I went with niche.  Then they wanted to know what kind.  I went with mysteries.  Fiction or non-fiction.  I went fiction.  And what did it come up with?  Ummm…Mark Twain. 

Now, while he IS an author I really enjoy…I don’t see how he even really fit what I was just asking for.  I can see if I was asking for a classic author or something.  But, ok.  Next result they gave me was Vikram Seth.  Hunch tells me that Seth is “an Indian poet, novelist, travel writer, librettist, children’s writer, biographer and memoirist.”  Uhh…ok.  The third choice offered up was Philip Kindred Dick.

Hunch was kind enough to even provide dates of birth and death for this one.  (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982 for the curious among you.) This one was “an American science fiction novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states.” 

So now I’m thinking Twain wasn’t such a bad pick.  What in the world?? I was thinking more along the lines of Patterson or Grafton.  And the last one listed…which they call the “wild card”?? Hugo Maurice Julien Claus. He was “a leading Belgian author, writing primarily in Dutch.” *considers banging head against wall*.  And yes, “Do I speak other languages?” was a “get to know you better” question Hunch asked me…and no…I don’t speak Dutch.

Early thoughts on Hunch

So, right now, although I admittedly didn’t play around with the site too much, I wasn’t overly impressed so far with the hunches it gave me.  While I think it is a nifty concept that I think can really go somewhere, I think it is going to take much user interaction to develop it to where they see the site going.  And even they know they need that.  More users/more answers/more questions is what it’s going to make Hunch work.  It’s a fun site…I could still see myself going back and playing around on it for kicks at this point.

According to their fact sheet, they claim their goal is “Eventually, when Hunch gets good enough, we hope users will trust it to make an informed decision without having to turn to lots of external time-consuming sources of information.”  Nothing wrong with aiming high!

Maybe my next question will be “Will Vista ever start working correctly on my laptop?”  Never mind, I don’t need a website to answer that one for me.  I have a hunch that’s a big N-O.