It makes Keen.com something like a giant Internet directory of 900 and 976 services -- but instead of providing phone numbers so you can call any time you like, it connects you directly, so you have to go back to Keen to call again.

Many Keen.com advice hawkers promote their expertise on such white-bread subjects as "buying a used car," "everything Mac" and "houseplant survival tips" -- just like on every other expert site. But many of the most popular topics are the same ones traditional 900 numbers cater to: psychics, astrology and the picking the brain of a "SEXXY 21 YEAR OLD LOOKING FOR STEAMING HOT FUN," not to forget the self-confessional recordings of 20-something TV celebrities.

The site reveals exactly how many calls have been placed to each advice-giver, how many each of them has actually answered and what cumulative rating their callers have given them. Jeannie4569, who is Keen.com's most popular psychic, has received 1,763 calls from folks seeking to tap into her self-professed abilities as a "master intuitive."

I searched in vain to find anyone who takes nearly as many calls as she does through the Keen.com site, where many of the advisors have, as of yet, like Jacob, received no calls at all. A two-minute recording titled "sweet redhead wants to read you a story ... prt 1" in the "Women Seeking Men" category got 202 calls at 75 cents a minute. And a guy calling himself TheLoneGunman, who offers "sound Internet biz advice" and claims to have worked for "most of the major players in the Internet game," has received just two calls, which sounds pretty weak, until you realize that he's the most popular of all 159 advisors listed in the "entrepreneurship" category.

Don't feel sorry for the two callers who paid 50 cents a minute to talk to the get-rich-quick schemer offering to reveal the secret to "50 percent investment return per month" in the "investment opportunities" category, making it the second most popular listing in that area. They may well have consulted a very credible psychic first.

Jacob, the CEO, says that the most popular advisors in the "Personal Advice," "Business and Personal Finance" and "Computing and Internet" categories make "over $1,000 a week." With the exception of "Personal Advice," where the psychics congregate, it's hard to see from looking at the site how this could be the case. The most popular advisor about computers offers a one-minute recording of "Windows Tip of the Day by Doctor Geek" for 75 cents a minute, and has received a grand total of 50 calls. A tax expert, who charges $2.50 a minute, has received 42 calls.

Jacob calls Keen.com "a totally free market." That it surely is. He explains the large number of psychics and sex-chat purveyors offering their services on the site by the fact that 900-number operators are quickly migrating their businesses there; Keen takes a 30 percent cut of whatever fee you charge per minute for your services, while a traditional 900-number operator takes as much as 70 percent. And the overwhelming popularity of those somewhat seedy 900-number style categories? Well, they're what people are used to paying for on the phone.

"It's just like eBay," he says. "When they started out they were selling Pez dispensers. A couple of categories catch on and then those users go on to other categories. Say my friend got an answer about their horoscope. I'd learn that I could ask tax questions in the same place."

Maybe. But who would think to pay for start-up advice from a site that also offers get-rich-quick schemes? Why would you trust a tax expert whom you found on a site populated by psychics? Or a psychic who frequented the same sites as a tax expert, for that matter?

Jacob disagrees: "I'll go back to the example of eBay again. People buy cars for $50,000 and Beanie Babies for $10 from them. It's the same thing that drives people to go shop at Costco or Wal-Mart where they get relatively low quality items sitting right next to relatively high quality." But the value of advice is much more slippery than the value of a tangible commodity, like a Pez dispenser. It's all about who you choose to trust.

Venture capitalist Roger McNamee of Integral Capital Partners, a key investor in Keen, explains it this way: Keen.com acts "a lot like a phone company." Because it connects people who want to talk and essentially sells them long-distance airtime. "We're having a conversation on the phone, but you don't think any less of the phone company because people are using it for dating or for psychics," he reasons. In this scenario, Keen.com's Web site is then like the phone book -- you know that the florist on page 212 has no bearing on the plumber on page 818. But that doesn't explain why no one is calling the Keen.com version of the plumber, and seemingly everyone is flocking to its phone equivalent of strip clubs.

"It's astonishing how many different ways people use it," enthuses McNamee. "And the great thing is the company doesn't have to make any choices about how this platform will be used. It has to make this a great platform and enable people to do whatever they want to do. The coolest technology businesses always work this way." So, in the end, it doesn't matter to Keen.com's business what people choose to use it to talk about, as long as they stay on the line and call back often.

McNamee even suggests that savvy callers might start to use it as a cheap substitute for long-distance phone calls. Say I list myself in some obscure category -- charging 5 cents a minute for "answers" about something as utterly useless as preparations for the big Y2K fallout. Surely, no one would call. Then, my mom could use Keen.com to call me in California from Texas for the 5-cent rate anytime. Of course, she'd be charged for the call. Now, there's an "answer" I'd like to sell. Maybe the ultimate value of Keen.com will be in connecting you to the people you already trust -- the people you already know.

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