FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

BACKGROUND
What is Sherpia?
Sherpia connects you with websites that have been personally recommended by your chosen guides. Since our belief is that people most trust the opinions of friends, family, co-workers, and others they know – our goal is to let you easily find sites that have been recommended (or not) by those you trust. You can then easily share your opinions with others to improve their web experience!
To learn more about what Sherpia can do for you please watch our introductory video below:

Why should I use Sherpia?
Traditional Web Search Engines are great for easily finding specific bits of information, such as “what is the zip code of Denver” or “who was the 10th US President”. However, when you are looking for a site that is best for a specific activity you want to do online, whether planning a trip to Europe, building your family tree, or shopping for the latest fashion trends – it is often impossible to know which ones are really the best for you. It is only natural to question whether sites are trustworthy, provide the quality you expect, is easy to use, etc. Sherpia changes that paradigm by giving you results recommended by your chosen guides!

REGISTRATION/PROFILE

Why use Facebook Connect when registering?
In addition to the ease of using your Facebook credentials to quickly join Sherpia, it will also be easy for your existing Facebook Connections to add you as a guide once they join Sherpia. You can also add guides that are also your Facebook Connections with one-click to quickly tap the knowledge of your current network of trusted friends.

Can I change my profile information after registering?
Yes. You can always update your profile after registering by clicking the “Update Profile” link, which takes you into the profile section.

Why should I select my “interests”?
Your chosen interests will determine which categories will appear in the “Featured Sites” box on your Home Page. If you do not select any interests then categories will appear randomly. We will also let you know of new sites that have been added that match your interests as part of email updates.

Who can I add as my guides?
As long as you are signed in to Sherpia, you can select any other registered user as a guide. This may be a friend whose opinion you already trust or someone who’s reviews you have read and you think is worth following. If you would like to see more reviews that another user has submitted before adding them as a guide simply click on their profile picture and you will be able to see the other sites they have reviewed, marked as favorite, etc. And you can always remove guides if you no longer value their opinions!

How do I add or remove a guide?
There are two places where you can add guides. When reading site reviews simply click on the "Add as Guide" button below another users picture next to the review they have written. This adds them as a guide. Alternatively, you can click on the “update profile” link and select the “MyGuides” tab. From here you can enter a name and click the “search” and the system will return all matching results. Or you can click the “Find Guides that are your Facebook Connections” button and the system will display all Sherpia users that have joined with Facebook Connect that are also connected to you on Facebook. To remove a guide click on “View My Guides” and click the “remove” button below the person you want to remove.

I know one of my Facebook Connections is also a Sherpia user but I don’t see them when I click the “Find Guides that are your Facebook Connections” button. Why not?
Only Sherpia users that have registered through Facebook Connect will appear in these results. You can always add a user by entering their name in the “Add Existing Guides” box.

FINDING SITES

How do I find Sites?
There are three main ways to find relevant sites in Sherpia.

• Select a category or sub-category from the Category Bar:

• Enter a search term in the Search Box and hit enter (or click the dropdown box for advanced search):

• Click on the different images in the “Featured Site” box on your Home Page to show a different site

What do the icons mean on the category results page?

• The first icon indicates how relevant the site is for you. Sherpia’s proprietary algorithm takes into account feedback from users similar to you, your guides, and other factors. The results will either be “hot” for very relevant, “warm” for somewhat relevant, and “cold” for not relevant at all.
• The second icon indicates the average score of the site for all guides which have written a review on a 1-5 scale.
• The third icon indicates the number of reviews that have been written for the site.

How do I narrow down my results to find more relevant sites?
You can easily narrow your results by using the filters in the “Narrow By” box at the top of the results screen. You can narrow by who has reviewed (e.g. all guides, my guides), site type (e.g. blogs, eCommerce), and/or tags (i.e. keywords related to a site). Once you make your choices click the “Go” button to see your results.

How do I add a site as a “favorite”?
When reviewing the site click on the button shaped like a heart or the "add as favorite" button.

VIEWING SITES AND WRITING REVIEWS

What is the difference between “Site Review” and “Visit Site”?
“Site Review” lets you learn more about a specific site, such as whether you are required to sign-in to use it, whether a fee is required to use the site, and what categories it is related to. You can also add tags and write a review. “Visit Site” opens a new browser window to display the actual site so you can write a review once you have checked it out.

Why do I sometimes not see the review bar when I click on “Visit Site”?
Certain sites restrict Sherpia from displaying their site within our application. In these cases we open a new browser and send you directly to the site. You can always return to Sherpia and write a review once you have looked at the site.

What do the icons mean when viewing a site?
Each icon will allow you to share great sites with others through social media links, such as "Tweeting" about the site from your Twitter account, posting the site to your Facebook wall, sending the site to Delicious, or sending an email to others about the site.

What are “Tags”?
Tags are keywords or terms related to a given site that will help users to more accurately find sites based on a search term. For example, the term “homemade gifts” is a tag for Etsy since that site specializes in selling homemade gifts. Users can add additional tags by entering a term and clicking on “Add”

What should I include in my review?
Your reviews will help other users that want to find recommended sites – and will help you down the road when you are trying to remember which sites you have had good experiences with. You should be as specific as possible about your experience by including information like what you bought, the quality of the site, the breadth of content, your experience with customer service, etc. Try to avoid generic reviews like “this is a good site”.

Why don’t my reviews show up as soon as I write them?
For optimum system performance it may take up to 30 minutes for your review to appear in the system.

Can I write multiple reviews for a site?
No. You may only write one review for a site. However, over time your opinion of a site may change so you should update your review.

How do I change my review for a site?
Simply return to the site page and update your existing review and score then hit submit.

ADDING SITES

How do I add a site to Sherpia?
Adding sites in easy – and will benefit both yourself and future users. Simply click on the button and enter the site name in the pop-up box. If the site already exists in our database you should be taken to the site information page. If not, you will be able to enter the site name, related categories, and a review.

How quickly does my added site and review show up in my profile?
The Sherpia Team will review each submitted site to ensure it meets our criteria to be added to the database. This should be done within 1-2 days.

What if I don’t know what category to choose when adding a site?
Just make your best guess! The Sherpia Team will validate that the category is correct before adding to the database. Additionally, if you think there are other categories that should be added to Sherpia please enter them in the box labeled "Are we mssing categories for this site? Please enter them here:". We will review your comments to help us decide additional categories to add.

If you have other questions about the site that are not answered here please send us an email at feedback@sherpia.com or submit a feedback form by clicking the "Feedback" button on your Home Base Camp Page. We will respond to you directly and we may want to add it to this list of frequently asked questions since others may likely be wondering the same thing!