ChaCha it appears is back from the brink. We've heard negative rumors about the company's financial condition for a long time. Now Mike Arrington (a former ChaCha basher, now kinder and gentler toward the company) has spoken to CEO Scott Jones and disclosed the following:

• ChaCha is the no. 1 SMS search service according to Nielsen (surpassing Google). This was previously reported
• Guides make an effective hourly wage of $2.50
• The cost per query was $0.50 two years ago and is now only a "few cents." Arrington says Jones told him it would drop to "under a cent soon" (primarily due to more automation and recycling of answers)
• ChaCha has roughly 60 FTEs

ChaCha recently introduced online and mobile coupons to boost frequency and the utility of the service, as well as diversify its advertising programs. ChaCha competes directly or indirectly with kgb, Vark, 800-Free-411 and search on smartphones.