Colly Myers, Founder and CEO, IssueBits

Which actor played Herman Munster? How far away is Mars? Which buses will take me home at 3 a.m.?

The Internet is a wondrous tool for spackling the gaps in our everyday knowledge, but that same push-button omniscience hasn't been as easily accessible to mobile users. That's why Colly Myers, former CEO of mobile operating system firm Symbian, began his new London-based company, IssueBits, which launched in April.

For 1 pound (currently about $1.80), Orange and Vodafone users can ask IssueBits a text-message question — any at all — and get a response up to 160 characters long in a matter of minutes. Response times vary according to query complexity, but so far 10 minutes is about average.

Myers hopes to eventually bring the U.K. service to the states, but he isn't marketing it yet to avoid overtaxing the system in the early stages of its education. The key to scaling the service is a careful mix of automation and human involvement, he said. For starters, the system builds a database to field repeat questions automatically. Software will attempt to do more of the work over time, but the carbon-based support staff (today numbering less than 50) will always be the last line of quality control.

“To provide a human service, you've always got to have a human in the loop,” Myers said.

So far, many of the incoming questions have asked for advice in making ordinary decisions, a fact that should come as no surprise to the generation that grew up with the Magic 8 Ball. “Requests for what bar to go to, what restaurant, what drink should I have next [are common],” Myers said. Others ask about themselves (call it “m-Googling”). And a handful of people have already asked the ultimate question: What is the meaning of life?

The answer? “You'll have to phone us and ask,” Myers said. “It's only a pound.”