I'm reluctant to use anything with the word "ninja" in it because it wreaks of immaturity.

The only thing I remember about Google Helpouts was reading liveninja's response to its introduction: http://www.willweinraub.com/dear-google-thanks-for-copying-m... Pretty interesting to back and read now.

Helpouts had tons of advisors for home/kitchen remodeling which I simply don't see at liveninja.

Which is unfortunate - I was thrilled when I found that on helpouts, but now that I'm actually starting a remodel project it's unfortunate that I can't get basic help for relative cheap costs.

Google really needs to do some tying of their services together - not in a Google+ kind of way where it's unwanted, but if, for example, they had helpouts to bolster Google product support and pushed some of that massive interest/traffic into the service, it might have found its mark sooner.

I gave this a spin. The entire setup was pretty buggy for me with 500s frequently being thrown.

I do want something like this, though I would be hesitant to use something this buggy.I also don't really want to tell professionals to meet with me using a product with the word "ninja" in it.

For giving free help calls, I've really enjoyed using SoHelpful: http://sohelpful.me/

Lots of amazing startup advice on there, all for free.