Technology is disclosed for a multi-tiered querying system to target queries to systems storing data relevant to the query. A multi-tiered targeted query system comprises at least three tiers: a web tier, an aggregator tier, and a shards tier. Servers at the web tier can be configured to service user data requests and pass them to servers at the aggregator tier. Servers at the aggregator tier can be configured to determine which selected shard servers have the requested information; formulate queries for the selected shard servers; send the queries to the selected shard servers; and aggregate results from the selected shard servers. Servers at the shard tier can be configured to store data, receive queries on that data, and return results for received queries.