About NowNow
Asking a question
Answers to your questions
Your Privacy
Proper Use of the Site

ABOUT NOWNOW

1. What is NowNow?

NowNow is a service that mobile users can use to find answers to any question via mobile email. When you post a question to NowNow via email (ask@nownow.com), our NowNow workers will surf the web to find the answer for you. NowNow workers are users who are being paid to search the web on your behalf. NowNow bypasses the need for mobile users to go to the web to find answers to questions as NowNow will send you an email with up to 3 answers to each question you ask. We have not finalized our pricing for each question, however, we expect each question will cost less than $0.25. During this beta-test period all questions asked will be FREE.

2. Who are the people answering my questions?

NowNow has partnered with Amazon.com company, Mechanical Turk (mturk.com), who has a community of users completing various tasks for numerous businesses. By partnering with Mechanical Turk we are paying the Mechanical Turk community (our NowNow workers) to answer your questions. We pay our NowNow workers based on the quality of answers provided, which is why we encourage you to tell us if an answer submitted was "lame", "junk", or "great" answer

3. Do I need to create an account to use NowNow and what do I need to sign up?

If you want to ask a question, you will need to create an account. There is no charge for creating an account with NowNow. If you were invited to join NowNow via email from an existing NowNow user, then we have already signed you up using your email address as your login and we've given you a temporary password, which you can change online.

4. What type of mobile devices does NowNow support?

You can use any mobile device that supports email protocol such as Blackberry, Palm Treo, and other Wireless PDAs or Smart phones.

5. Do I need to log onto NowNow every time I visit?

In order to manage and access your account you will have to log in every time you visit NowNow.com. By logging in you will be able to manage your questions and change your preferences/settings. To use NowNow from your mobile device, you just have to send an email to "ask@nownow.com" and type in your question in the subject header. Once our NowNow workers have found an answer to your question, we will send you an email with up to 3 answers to each question you ask.

6. How do I contact NowNow with more questions about NowNow?

Please e-mail us at: feedback@NowNow.com.

7. Where do I find NowNow's Terms of Service?

Click on this link to read NowNow's Terms and Conditions.

8. Why is NowNow an invite only service?

We are currently beta-testing NowNow to make sure that we provide you with excellent service. Consequently, we are limiting the number of users who can use the service.

9. How many invites will I receive?

The number of invites you will receive will be based upon how well we are able to provide you with excellent service. Consequently each user will have anywhere from zero (0) to five (5) invites. Periodically we will update each users account with more open invites based on our ability to provide all NowNow users with a high level of service.

10. How can I invite a friend using one of my invites?

You can invite a friend to NowNow.com by using the "invite" command from you mobile device. You just have to send an email to "ask@nownow.com" and in the body of the email type "invite X" where X is the email address of the person you would like to invite. After your friend receives an email from us, your friend can immediately start using the NowNow service. You also can invite users from the web by clicking on the invite link at the upper right hand corner of the website, assuming you have some open invites left to give.

11. How do I know how many open invites I have?

If you go to NowNow.com and log onto NowNow you will see at the upper right hand corner of the website the # of open invites you have left.

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ASKING A QUESTION

1. When can I start asking questions using my mobile device?

If you were invited to join NowNow via email from an existing NowNow user you can immediatley start asking questions to NowNow by sending an email to "ask@nownow.com" from your mobile device and type in your question in the subject header. We have already signed you up using your email address as your login and we've given you a temporary password, which we have sent to you via email. You can change your temporary password online by going to NowNow.com.

2. How do I submit a question via email using my mobile device?

You can submit a question to NowNow as if you were composing an email. You should address the email to "ask@nownow.com". You then type in the question in the email Subject Header, after which you simply send the email. You do not have to type in a "?" at the end of the question. Once we receive the email, our NowNow workers will take your question and begin to surf the web to find your answers. Once our NowNow workers have found an answer we will email you each answer in a separate email. Please do not forget to vote for each answer provided. Click here to learn how to vote for each answer. The more you vote the better we will be able to answer your questions.

3. How do I submit a question via SMS using my mobile device/phone?

(Coming Soon)

4. Can I ask a question via the web?

You can log onto NowNow.com and ask questions into the mobile device image on our home page. Any questions that you ask on the web will be treated the same way as if you had asked the question on your mobile device.

5. Can I ask a question from my email client (e.g. Yahoo mail, Hotmail, Gmail, Outlook)?

You can ask a question to NowNow from anywhere you can send an email message so long as you've registered the email address you are sending the question from with us. You can change the email address where you want NowNow to send your answers to by going to Manage Email Addresses from the homepage. Any question that you ask on the web will be treated the same way as if you had asked the question on your mobile device.

6. What questions can I ask?

You can ask any question that can be answered with words or numbers and can be found on the web. Our NowNow workers are not necessarily experts in the field related to your question, but they are pretty good in locating information on the web. If the answer to your question is online, chances are pretty good they'll find it. Keep in mind that NowNow is not a substitute for professional advice or services, nor will we knowingly provide answers to assist in illegal activities. We reserve the right to delete or reject questions on a case-by-case basis if they do not comply with our editorial policy and guidelines for "Proper Use," as specified in our Conditions Of Use.
NowNow discourages and may remove questions that:

request private information about individuals
want assistance in conducting illegal activities
are meant to sell or advertise products
refer or relate to adult content
are homework or exam questions
seek specific information about NowNow (email feedback@nowow.com instead)

ANSWERS TO YOUR QUESTIONS

1. How will I get my answers back?

We will send an email message to you for every answer that we get back from our NowNow workers (i.e. workers from the Mechanical Turk community). You will receive anywhere from 1 to 3 answers back from our NowNow workers, each sent in a separate email message. .

2. What if a question doesn't have a clear answer?

Some questions simply don't have clear, straightforward answers that can be answered through an online search or through another reference source (e.g. "Which is prettier - blue or green?"). In such cases, NowNow workers will attempt to provide links to useful background information on the question.

3. How does NowNow make sure I will get high quality answers?

NowNow has partnered with an Amazon.com company, Mechanical Turk (mturk.com), who has a community of users completing various tasks for numerous businesses. By partnering with Mechanical Turk we are paying the Mechanical Turk community (our NowNow workers) to answer your questions. We pay our NowNow workers based on the quality of answers provided, which is why we encourage you to tell us if an answer submitted was "lame", "junk", "like" or "great" answer. We take those ratings and keep track of the performance of each NowNow worker in the Mechanical Turk community. If an NowNow worker's rating falls below an acceptable level, he or she will no longer be allowed to participate as an NowNow worker. While our NowNow workers will do their best to help answer every question, some questions simply don't have clear answers (e.g., "Should I breakup with my girlfriend?"). It's also possible the answer to your question is simply not available. If you do receive an answer, but are not satisfied with it, you have the option of resubmitting your question for a new set of answers for free, you can apply for a refund (when we start charging for each question), , and/or you can give a specific NowNow worker a poor rating by flagging any specific answer as "lame" or "junk". NowNow actively monitors the performance level of our NowNow workers and uses your ratings as a method to remove poor or abusive NowNow workers.

4. How do I sign up to become an NowNow worker?

You can become an NowNow worker by simply going to our partner's site, www.mturk.com. Once you've signed up with our partner, Mechanical Turk, you need to just find NowNow questions on their work board.

5. How do I rate an answer from my mobile device? What other commands can I send via my mobile device?

You can give commands to NowNow from your mobile device via email. Commands include rating an answer, buying more questions (coming soon), resubmitting a question, etc. To send a command from you mobile device simply reply to any NowNow email and type the command in the body of the email. Mobile Device Commands:

lame - this tells NowNow that this answer was not satisfactory. We will penalize the NowNow worker for submitting a lame answer. If an NowNow worker gets enough "lame" votes, they will no longer be able to answer questions on NowNow.

junk - this tells NowNow that this answer was completely inappropriate and/or was spam. Any NowNow worker who has received too many "junk" votes will no longer be able to answer questions on NowNow.

like - this tells NowNow that you liked this answer. NowNow will keep track of the number of "like" votes each worker receives to measure performance and ensure that you will get high quality answers back from us.

great - this tells NowNow that this answer was a great answer and very helpful to you.

resubmit- if you are not satisfied with the initial set of answers (you will receive up to 3 answers) you can resubmit the question to get another set of answers for free. You can only resubmit a question once.

invite x - if you want to invite a friend to NowNow and you still have open invites to give out you can send an email to "ask@nownow.com" and in the body of the email type "invite X" where X is the email address of the person you would like to invite. After your friend receives an email from us, your friend can immediately start using the NowNow service.
help - this will email you a list of all the available commands you can use from your mobile device.

6. What if I don't like the answers I got? What can I do?

If you receive an answer and are not satisfied with it, you have the option of waiting for another answer to be submitted by a different NowNow worker (up to a maximum of 3 answers). If you get 3 answers to your question you should be able to determine what the right answer is to your question, i.e. if two of your answers are the same and the third one is different than most likely the two answers that were the same is probably more right than the one answer that was different. If you are still not satisfied with your answers, you have a few options:

You can resubmit your question for a new set of answers for free by replying to the original question and typing into the body of the email "resubmit". You will be allowed to resubmit a previously asked question for free one time only for each question.
You can give a specific NowNow worker a poor rating by flagging any specific answer "lame" or "junk". You can do this on your mobile device by going to the email with the poor answer and sending a reply with the text "lame" or "junk" in the body of the email message. NowNow actively monitors the performance level of our NowNow workers and uses your ratings as a method to remove poor or abusive NowNow workers.

8. Can I reward the NowNow worker who gave me a great answer?

Yes. You will have the option of flagging any answer as "great" answer. You can do this on your mobile device by going to the email with the great answer and sending a reply with the text "great" in the body of the email message.

9. How many invites will I receive?

The number of invites you will receive will be based upon how well we are able to provide you with excellent service. Consequently each user will have anywhere from zero (0) to a hundred (100) invites. Periodically we will update each users account with more open invites based on our ability to provide all NowNow users with a high level of service.

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YOUR PRIVACY

1. What is NowNow's Privacy Policy?

You can find this policy at http://www.nownow.com/nownow/privacy.jsp.

2. Will my question and answer be publicly viewable?

Yes. Your question and the corresponding answer will be posted on the web and viewable by the public. However, your personal information and identity will never be posted with your question, so your privacy is protected.

3. Will others be able to see my email address if I ask a question?

No. We do not display anyone's email address or other form of identity next to any question, comment, or answer. NowNow respects the privacy of our users and we have a comprehensive privacy policy that we encourage you to review at http://www.nownow.com/nownow/privacy.jsp.

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PROPER USE OF THE SITE

1. What happens to people who spam NowNow?

Users who spam NowNow will have their account revoked. If you see evidence of spamming, please flag that question as "junk" and we will prohibit the worker who submitted that answer from answering any other NowNow questions.

2. How do I report questionable content to editors at NowNow?

At the bottom of every question page we provide a link to feedback@nownow.com. We encourage you to use this link whenever you see questionable content posted to the site. In your email, please provide information about the question, its ID number, and the reason you find the content questionable.

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