1. At a computer system including at least one processor and a memory, in a computer networking environment including a plurality of computing systems, a computer-implemented method for determining in an email data store which of a plurality of email mailboxes is searchable, the method comprising: a web service receiving a request to determine which of a plurality of email mailboxes in an email data store is searchable for contained email items, wherein the web service allows multiple different programs to search the email data store and wherein each mailbox in the plurality of email mailboxes contains a plurality of email items; the web service sending a query to the email data store to determine which email mailboxes are searchable for contained email items; and the web service returning a list of those email mailboxes which are searchable in the data store, wherein the searchable mailboxes have a specified version and permissions indicating that the mailbox is searchable.