Busybee
Norgdom
Perth MusicBongo yourself
Well my excuse for writing this post is that it may come in handy for Cit J’s when they are out in the field reporting a story.
But also it’s kind of cool …
199Bongo is a text messaging service that will send you an answer to any question you ask within a matter of minutes (well unless the question is something you probably shouldn’t be asking ;).) Though I should warn it comes at the expense of $3 a question.
So to give it a try out I asked “Who is Bronwen Clune?”
The answer came back within about 5 minutes: “Bongo knows a Bronwen who is a former print journalist and wrote Norgdom. She is a Perth-based mother-of-four and aspiring grassroots media mogul.”
I have to say it’s not the best description I’ve heard of myself, but it was a fun experiment all the same. I couldn’t find anywhere on the companies website about when they started so I sent them the question.
Apparently they are a lot less open with their own background than they are with yours, because this is what I got in reply:
“Bongo has been around ever since he exited his mothers womb about 23 years ago. It was on that day that god proclaimed ‘Let there be bongo’.”
One amusing fact I did find on the site, was that in order to get a job at Bongo one has to have a diploma or degree. This is from their website:
“Because of the challenge involved in finding answers, we only hire people who have a diploma or degree education, or are in the process of completing one, and who consider themselves to be very good with computers.”
Didn’t know Google was that hard to use…
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:20 am
I found out late Saturday night..that bongo sleeps. I waited and waited and at 4:30 am i finally got a reply. He did apologize, but insisted he needed sleep.
October 4th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Mmmm. I know how Bongo feels. Starting a business does tend to leave one a little low on sleep!
October 5th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
I’ve found another, 199QUERY which operates 24/7 (thus doesn’t sleep) and only costs $2.50. I texted “what is the number for a silver service taxi” at 3 am on a tuesday and got back the number and that taxis usualy change drivers at 3am/3pm which is why its always hard to find a taxi! website is at http://199query.com
October 23rd, 2006 at 11:36 am
so how many of these businesses are there within australia? it seems that there are only these two operating. have you heard of any others going around. Do you think that they are popular within all states or only the ones in which they operate in. Cause i heard that bongo is in vic so not many ppl from Qld use it. Same with 199 query, they’re in syd but not very poplular in Perth.
your thoughts?
March 30th, 2007 at 11:16 am
Bongo knows all he is a mystery…
time is moving along you can move on do u understand what is required?
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 am
[…] AB (The Daily Magnet), Rich (Clique Communications), Clay (Minti) and Bronwen (PerthNorg) showed up for the bloggers meetup on Wednesday night. Interesting conversations as usual, including citizen journalism, statistics (I’m glad I wasn’t the only one slightly confused about the different terms!), bongo and more! I didn’t get there till 7.30, and the others not till a bit later, so I hope there wasn’t anybody who got there on time and then left because nobody was there! What are people’s opinions on moving the meet to 7.30pm? […]
March 18th, 2008 at 6:07 am
my bongo reply said (my name) is a great shoulder to cry on for friends in need (my friend is going through a divorce) and that i have a great smile (ive just spent 2000 pound on cosmetic dentistry)
mmmmmmmmmmmmmm strange stuff!!!!!!!!!!