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March 27, 2009 3:36 PM PDT

Flickr co-founder presses beta button

by Charles Cooper

Once you're lucky, twice you're good? So went the title of a recent book about Web 2.0 entrepreneurs. Pretty soon, we may have an idea whether it applies to Caterina Fake.

Fake, the co-founder of Flickr, announced on her blog Friday afternoon that her new start-up, Hunch, is sending out invitations to try the service, now in beta test.

What is it? I'll hand the reins over to Fake and let her explain:

Look. Decision-making is difficult, and decisions have to be made constantly. What should I be for Halloween? Do I need a Porsche? Does my hipster facial hair make me look stupid? Is Phoenix a good place to retire? Whom should I vote for? What toe ring should I buy?

It's dark and lonely work. Coin-flipping, I Ching consultation, closing your eyes and jumping, postponing the inevitable, Rock-Paper-Scissors, and asking your sister are all time-honored means of coming to a decision--and yet we think there's room for one more: Hunch.

Hunch is a decision-making site, customized for you. Which means Hunch gets to know you, then asks you 10 questions about a topic (usually fewer!), and provides a result--a hunch, if you will. It gives you results it wouldn't give other people.

Will it fly? Who knows, but in the midst of this miserable economic depression, there probably are lots of people out there who feel as if they don't have a clue anymore.

Charles Cooper has covered technology and business for more than 25 years. Before joining CNET News, he worked at the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie.
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by andrew.mager March 27, 2009 3:57 PM PDT
It seems all these new sites are "teaching the machine". Very interested to see this technology evolve. Great writeup Coop
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by iertry March 27, 2009 4:39 PM PDT
Seems like an interesting service. My take some traffic from Yahoo answers as it seems a lot of people use it for 'hunches'. Looking forward to trying it out.
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by nSeika March 27, 2009 10:58 PM PDT
Not picking up on the women, but the colour, design and title, sounds feminine doesn?t it ?
With no further implied meaning.
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by xim1970 March 28, 2009 2:25 PM PDT
Sounds like crap to me. Make a decision, and whether it's right or wrong, live with it. Move on, and make some other choices. It's what we all do. We don't need a website for this. Unless you have no self-esteem.
And I agree with nSeika...looks pretty feminine...'nuff said!
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by yanchineseguy April 2, 2009 11:25 AM PDT
Coop - a question for clarification.

Is this a site to help you with decisions, i.e. choosing between two or more choices? Or is it a site for recommendations based on your preferences like Netflix's movie recommendation service?
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by fahadbhai August 4, 2009 9:38 AM PDT
It's pretty interesting but I agree with the guys here.. It looks feminine but one more innovative way to waste time.
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