Frequently asked questions
Here you should find responses to many questions.
If you need more information or have a new question please send an email to support@whereisnow.com
The service
What does WhereIsNow™ exactly do?
WhereIsNow™ tells you where to find the very latest version of a given document. Whether you are looking for a catalog, a law or a regulation, or maybe somebody's personal contacts, WhereIsNow™ allows you to reach its latest available version without wasting your time searching the web or asking around.
Sounds cool. How does it exactly work?
When you publish a piece of information on the Internet, you can register on WhereIsNow™ the details of the document that contains it. WhereIsNow™ will then assign a pair of keys to the document: PublisherID and DocumentID. These keys will be tied to the document from this moment onward. You'll be always able to change the document information, including its format, description and, most important of all, the address or addresses where the document can be found. Users will just keep searching the document with the same two WhereIsNow™ keys and they will be automatically redirected to the latest version of it.
Is it Free?
You can create as many WhereIsNow™ accounts as you want for free and use all WhereIsNow™ features without limitations up to 50 registered documents.
If you need to manage more than 50 documents with a single account, feel free to contact our sales department at sales@whereisnow.com to receive a customized commercial offer.
Does WhereIsNow™ use crawlers?
No. WhereIsNow™ document data are added and updated uniquely by users who publish the information. The publisher itself registers its own documents on WhereIsNow™, then updates the address where the document can be found and other document's relevant information from time to time. This way, users can be pretty confident that they will find always reliable and updated information.
Why should I use WhereIsNow™ instead of Google | Yahoo | whatever?
WhereIsNow™ is not a competitor of regular search engines. WhereIsNow™ does not aim to find generic information. It aims to reach the very latest available version of a given document published on the Net. If you want to read the biography of your favorite singer you should just keep asking Google or Wikipedia, but if you need to know the very latest modifications to the copyright law, then WhereIsNow™ is the right place to look in.
Who puts the information on WhereIsNow™?
Publisher do. When somebody publish a piece of information on the Internet, he can register on WhereIsNow™ the details of the document that contains it, including the addresses where it can be found and / or downloaded. You don't need to be the author of the document to register it on WhereIsNow™ (provided that the document or the information in it are not covered by restrictive terms of use).
How do PublisherID and DocumentID are assigned to my documents?
When you create your free personal WhereIsNow™ account you are identified with a unique key called PublisherID. Every time you will register a new document it will be identified with a unique key called DocumentID. The DocumentID will be tied to that document forever.
I cannot upload my file on WhereIsNow™. What should I do?
WhereIsNow™ does NOT store your files, so you cannot upload them. WhereIsNow™ stores just the file's description and the addresses where the users can find it.
What's the difference between Key Search and Tag Search on www.WhereIsNow™.com?
The Key Search is the main search service of the WhereIsNow™ portal. It allows you to immediately reach the latest version of a given document if you already know both its WhereIsNow™ keys. If you are looking for some information and you don't know in what document they are available, you can use the Tag Search just like a regular web search engine. If some document that matches your search criteria has been already registered on WhereIsNow™ you'll see it highlighted and you'll be able to see its latest version details. Otherwise you'll be provided with a list of matching generic web pages or documents and you'll be able to register them yourself on WhereIsNow™ by just clicking on the WhereIsNow™ logo next to every search result.
Can I integrate my own application with WhereIsNow™?
Of course you can, and we think you should! WhereIsNow™ has been developed as a web service in order to provide the maximum possible level of integration with every other external application. Take a look to our developer's zone to know more about our APIs and WSDL interfaces.
What evergreen links are?
An evergreen link is a small html string that you can embed into your web pages or emails to allow people to find always the latest version of a document with just a click. Give an example: let's assume you are looking for a new job, so you put your resume on www.fakejobsearchdirectory.com, then you start sending emails to recruiting offices and posting on job search forums saying "Hello, take look at my profile on www.fakejobsearchdirectory.com/john_doe". After a couple of months Fakejobsearchdirectory.com suddenly closes your account because of inactivity or you simply decide that you want to put your curriculum vitae on your blog. Now you should go back to every forum you posted the link on and update it, then you have to send emails to every recruiting office you contacted before to tell them where to find the new document. If you had used a WhereIsNow™ evergreen link in the first place, now you should just log in on your WhereIsNow™ control panel and update the information of the document containing your resume by editing its address. From that moment on, every time somebody click on the evergreen link the WhereIsNow™ service will seamlessly redirect him to the new address. What follows is the HTML code you may use to insert an evergreen link on your pages ( in this case for document 1-1 )
<a href='http://www.whereisnow.com/KeySearch.now?publisher=[Publisher]&document=[Document]' title="Check on WhereIsNow™" style="text-decoration: none;" target='_blank'>
(<img src='http://www.whereisnow.com/img/w_now.gif' /> [Publisher] - [Document])
</a>
Remember to replace [Publisher] and [Document] with the keys of your document.
I put two evergreen links in my web site, why if I click on the first one I end up to the WhereIsNow™ site, while clicking on the other one I'm redirected to the correct document address?
If a document registered on WhereIsNow™ has just one address and this address is not set as reserved, then WhereIsNow™ seamlessly redirect the user to the final address of the document. If, instead, the document is available in more than one location or the address is set as reserved, then WhereIsNow™ shows the list of available document addresses and, if reserved, asks the user to authenticate in order to verify whether he has the needed permission to see it.
Self updating documents
What self-updating documents are?
The self-updating documents are just regular documents including the WhereIsNow™ keys. The keys are stored into the document's file and allows the document itself to be automatically updated to the latest available version every time you use it. Currently the files in the following formats can become self-updating documents: pdf, Microsoft Office and OpenOffice. If you wish, you can embed the WhereIsNow™ keys in a special document containing your personal contact information as well. We call this document (surprisingly enough) self-updating contacts. Read more in this FAQs to learn what they are and how they work.
How can I embed the WhereIsNow™ keys in my documents?
You can do this in many ways at your choice:
- If you want to turn a regular pdf document into a self-updating document you can use our client Desk.Now or the Adobe Reader's plugin PdfReader.Now.
- For Microsoft Office or OpenOffice documents you can install the appropriate WhereIsNow™ plugin into your office suite (Office.Now and OpenOffice.Now).
- Use Fire.Now, our magic extension for Firefox. Fire.Now adds the ability of automatically include the WhereIsNow™ keys into your pdf documents as soon as you upload them somewhere on the Web. Fire.Now allows you to register on WhereIsNow™ links to web pages as well.
When do the details of a registered document will become available to users?
The document's details will be available to users immediately when you click on the Publish button in your control panel.
I've registered and published a document's information on WhereIsNow™ but I cannot view them when I perform a Key or Tag Search. What am I supposed to do?
This can happen if you have set one or more document's addresses as reserved and you are not logged in. Log on with your WhereIsNow™ username and password and try searching again.
A friend sent a WhereIsNow™ document to me, how can I check if a most recent version is available somewhere? Do I have to search on the WhereIsNow™ portal?
It depends. The WhereIsNow™ web site is a universal access portal to the WhereIsNow™ data so you can always use it to find the latest version of a document registered on the WhereIsNow™ service, but some documents are able to auto-update themselves with just a couple of mouse clicks using the WhereIsNow™ keys embedded into the file and the appropriate plugin downloadable from our download page. Check the FAQ about the self-updating documents to know more.
How can I check if a document has the WhereIsNow™ keys embedded in it?
If you have a pdf, Microsoft Office or an OpenOffice file you can pick the appropriate plugin from our download page and check if the WhereIsNow™ keys are already embedded into the document. If you have a file in a different format or if you just want to check if a document you are looking for has been already registered on WhereIsNow™, then you can use the Tag Search service on the WhereIsNow™ web site. Put your keywords into the search box as you would do in any other generic web search engine and if that document already exists into the WhereIsNow™ archives it will be highlighted with all its latest version details. If you have a pdf, Microsoft Office or an OpenOffice file you can pick the appropriate plugin from our download page and check if the Whereisnow keys are already embedded into the document. If you have a file in a different format or if you just want to check if a document you are looking for has been already registered on Whereisnow, then you can use the Tag Search service on the Whereisnow web site. Put your keywords into the search box as you would do in any other generic web search engine and if that document already exists into the Whereisnow archives it will be highlighted with all its latest version details.
Which file formats are supported by WhereIsNow™ at the moment?
You can actually register on WhereIsNow™ every kind of document. WhereIsNow™ does NOT store your files, it stores just the file's description and the addresses where the users can find it. So there are no limitations to the kind of document WhereIsNow™ can handle. Furthermore, some file formats (see above) can embed the WhereIsNow™ keys in order to auto-update themselves using the appropriate clients and plugins.
Fine, I've registered my first document on WhereIsNow™. How can I create a new version of it?
The easiest way is to login into your WhereIsNow™ control panel and use your document management console. You can publish a new version by cloning a previous one and editing just the details that have changed, or you can simply create a brand-new one from scratch. Anyway, the WhereIsNow™ web service can handle the creation of new documents and versions by external third-party clients. If you are a developer and you are interested in building your own WhereIsNow™ client, take a look to our developer's zone to know more about our APIs and WSDL interfaces.
I've registered a new version of a document on WhereIsNow™. Now what? Do people all around the world will be immediately notified that an updated version of my document has been released?
Of course they won't. As long as they wouldn't be spammed with mails announcing that you opened a new thai-cuisine focused blog. Nevertheless, they will be automatically redirected to the new version of the document as soon as they will search it on WhereIsNow™ or, in the case of a self-updating document, as soon as they will open it again.
Self updating contact
I wish to register my contacts document on WhereIsNow™. What should I do?
First of all, if you are not registered yet, you need a valid WhereIsNow™ account. Go to the registration page, fill in the form, then confirm your registration using the link that you should receive via email. Now you can access your control panel and create your own contact document by clicking on Contact.Now and filling all the contact details you want to publish.
I registered my contact information on WhereIsNow™. How can I make them available to other applications? Is there already some application I can use right now?
Once you publish your contact document and optionally define a list of users that are allowed to see it, your contacts will be immediately available to every user with appropriate permissions and can be retrieved by any application that is able to query the WhereIsNow™ web services. A mobile application for Nokia mobile phones running Symbian is currently available in an Alpha version. But everybody can create his own application to interact with the WhereIsNow™ web services, so more pieces of software will be available in the future.
Do my contact information have to be stored on WhereIsNow™ servers? Can I save them in a different place and keep on using the WhereIsNow™ self-updating contacts service?
When you create your contact document you can decide whether you want to store it on the WhereIsNow™ secure servers or to download it (as a xml-formatted text file) and publish it everywhere you wish. It's your personal data, so the choice is entirely up to you. If you decide not to leave your contact on our secure servers, the only requirement in order to keep using the WhereIsNow™ self-updating contacts service is to tell WhereIsNow™ where to find the contact document.
I gave the WhereIsNow™ keys of my contact document to a friend, but he cannot see my data. Why?
Probably you just didn't add his email address to the list of authorized users. Or maybe your friend does not have a valid WhereIsNow™ account. Check the list of authorized users, then tell your friend to activate a free WhereIsNow™ account on the WhereIsNow™ registration page.
A friend gave me the WhereIsNow™ keys and told me that I can use it to retrieve his contact information (mobile, email, etc). How can I see these information?
There are currently two ways.
- Using the WhereIsNow™ web site http://www.whereisnow.com: you can just perform a key search with the WhereIsNow™ keys that your friend gave you.
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Using an external client: you can download our MobileContacts.Now client for mobile phones (Symbian) by clicking on this evergreen link
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MobileContacts.Now allows you to automatically update your mobile phone's address book. You just need to know the contact documents keys of your friends, collegues and relatives.
I performed a tag search on WhereIsNow™ and I found an important document. Can I register it on WhereIsNow™ as if it was mine?
You can register on WhereIsNow™ any document, as long as it is not covered by copyrights or other legal limitations.
Share your data
Do the data I register on WhereIsNow™ are available to everybody? Can I decide who is authorized to see them?
Of course you can. Every time you register a new document or a new version on WhereIsNow™ you can decide whether it will be available to everybody or to limit the access to a custom list of users.
Why should I set an address as reserved?
WhereIsNow™ gives you all tools to manage and protect your privacy. You will always have complete control over your data. If a document contains your personal data or other private information, you probably don't want everybody on the Web to have access to it. Setting the address as reserved you can select users who will be able to find it on WhereIsNow™.
Ok. I want to set a list of users who will be authorized to see a document address. What's the difference between a closed list and an open list?
It's very simple. If an address is reserved to an open list only the users of the list will be able to see it, but if an user who is not in the list yet will look for that document WhereIsNow™ will notify you, so you'll be able to add him to the list of authorized users if you want. If you have set a closed list instead, users not present in the list will be just bounced without any notification.
Do all users in the list have to be WhereIsNow™ users?
Yes, they have to. And you'll add them to your list(s) by adding the email address they've used to create their free WhereIsNow™ account.
I've set a document address to be available only for users in an open list. How can I check who searched my document to allow him to see the information?
Go to your control panel and expand the description of the document's latest available version. Click on open list. You'll see the list of authorized users. If somebody who has not been authorized yet required to see your document, then you'll find his email address in the list. If you want to authorize him, just confirm the new permissions by clicking on the button Set grants. If you prefer not to give that user the authorization to see your document's address, then you'll delete his address from list and reset the grants.
I receive a lot of notifications of people trying to see my contacts document and I don't want to see them anymore. How can I accept only people I know?
Just put the addresses of your friends and relatives into a closed list. This way, WhereIsNow™ is not notifying you anymore if someone else will search your document.