XREF – Email, phone number, physical address, instant messenger, web page etc  cross-reference service

 

  1. Email addresses, even so-called roaming email addresses, tend to have a finite lifespan.  No matter how much one intends that an email address is for a lifetime, something happens – a service provider closes down or increases charges to uneconomic levels.

 

  1. Mobile phones get stolen, get broken etc..  You change country and the cost of roaming is too high – you get a local phone.  A new offer comes out and you change your service provider and your number.

 

  1. If you have a web page, then the provider once again closes down or increases charges – you are forced to move or close your web page.

 

  1. How do prospects, clients, family and personal friends keep in touch with you?

 

  1. With Xref, you easily make cross references between previous email addresses, fixed and mobile phone numbers, web pages and your current one(s).

 

  1. Xref allows you if you want to simply make a hierarchy of your contact information – for example, make your previous and present mobile phone numbers level 5, your previous and present fixed phone numbers level 4, your previous and present email addresses level 3 – then if someone queries the system with a previous mobile phone number the system will give to them your present mobile, fixed phone and email addresses; but if someone queries with a previous email address of yours then the system will only give your present email address(es)…

 

  1. Xref also gives you password protection, so that you can stop malicious people or business competitors laying a false trial to themselves or to non-existent numbers or addresses.

 

  1. Xref is a shareware service – it is free but we encourage you to make a small donation to enhance our lifestyle – once this service gets popular then we will provide payment info on this page – it will almost certainly be by mailing a US$, Euro or Pound Sterling check – we do not like the concept of taking people’s credit card number.  The proposed donation will be in the region of US$ 5-00, Euro 5-00, or GBP 3-00, but you can send more or less if you want.

 

  1. find Xref at http://www24.brinkster.com/alexweir/xref.asp - even if we move it somewhere else there will be a link on that page.

 

  1. You want only some people to be able to contact you – how can xref help? – make your cross-references from old/obsolete phone numbers and email addresses to a hotmail or yahoo email address which you only use for this purpose.  Check it once a week or once a month and reply only to those people you wish to be able to contact you – give them your new contact info (which can also be on Xref, but which does not have to be connected to your old contact info).  And Xref never asks for your name and never stores your name (or any other information from your PC or from your internet service provider).   And Xref never sends you junk mail.

 

  1. Q - Can Xref be used by junk mailers?   A – NO - we do not allow searches by wild-cards or to list a number of similar numbers or addresses – searching is on “letter-box” principle only – you need to know the exact address you are searching for.  Therefore Xref cannot be used as a people-finder or junk-mail email address builder.

 

  1. Q - Xref sounds such a great service – will you be able to cope with the volumes of data and searches?  A – YES - we have started off on a free site using Access Database, ASP, IIS and WIN2000.  When we start to take off we will rapidly port the existing data to a new chargeable site using MYSQL Database, PHP, Apache and Linux – that will take care of scalability.

 

  1. Q - can Xref do anything for people without email or telephones? A – do such people exist? Seriously – YES - the length limit which we store is 62 characters – so you can also use Xref for physical or postal addresses if you really want to.  We recommend as a convention do not use commas or full stops in the address and use an underscore instead of a single space to separate information – don’t worry since our data entry processing takes care of that.

 

  1. Xref can especially be used also by companies, so that they are easy to contact when their fixed phone or mobile phone or fax numbers have been changed

 

  1. Xref can be used by any person or organization when a web page changes location.

 

Alex Weir     27 June 2002

 

Any additional questions or comments please feed to: alexweir@hotmail.com