Yahoo! Canada Answers Blog

If you’re a mom like me, you constantly worry about developing healthy eating habits for your kids. How do you get the little munchkins to eat their vegetables? (And I am not including french fries in this challenge.) Drop us a comment and share your tips, but first check out my story about okra and a new recipe I created. (My 9-month-old baby totally loves this!)

As a kid, much to the joy of my parents, I loved okra, the vegetable that’s high in fiber, calcium, and iron: fuzzy on the outside and mucilaginous on the inside!

My introduction to okra was when I visited the exotic city of Ahvaz, Iran, in a stew called “koresh bamieh.” I next saw it in a less-exotic location — North Carolina — where I dined in a cafeteria called K+W, which served Southern-style fried okra. I remember the manager telling me “you gotta try those, honey; everyone around here loves them things. You ain’t a true Southerner if you don’t love Okra.” It actually took me a year or two to realize that okra and bamieh were the same vegetable!

I’ve started to tag all of my favorite okra recipes on Delicious, so follow me if you want to learn more.  In addition, here are some interesting facts about okra that I’ve already discovered on Yahoo! Answers, thanks to you guys.

Finally my own koresh bamieh recipe, using eggplant instead of the traditional lamb. Bon appétit or, as they say in Iran, “noosh-e jaan,”

Ingredients:

• 2 large red onions, thinly sliced
• 4 medium sized eggplants
• 10 small yellow tomatoes
• 2 large red tomatoes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt to taste
• Pinch of paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup tamarind sauce (recipe below)
• 1 pound fresh whole baby okra, washed and trimmed
• Water

Preparation:

• In a large pan, take about half (2 to 3 tablespoons) of the olive oil and sauté onions on medium heat till golden. Add turmeric and garlic, then sauté for another 5 to 7 minutes.
• Place the eggplant in the pan and brown on all sides. Add salt and pepper.
• Stir in the tamarind sauce and then cook for another 10 minutes.
• In a separate skillet, heat the rest of the olive oil and sauté the okra lightly for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Add the okra to the pan and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
• Stir in paprika or water, as needed.
• Serve hot with rice, yogurt, herbs, and bread.

Tamarind Sauce:

Place eight ounces of tamarind paste, with pods, in a bowl. Cover with hot water for an hour to soften. Using a spoon, a fork, or your fingers, separate the pods from the pulp to get the juice out. Add more hot water if needed. Discard the seeds and strings. Pour the tamarind liquid in a jar and add a cube of vegetable stock. Store in a cool, dry place.

Thanks for reading!

To continuing improving your Yahoo! Answers experience we have introduced a few small changes this week…

Changing time to choose a Best Answer

Based on your feedback to be able to resolve a question quicker, we have now reduced the wait time to choose a best answer from 4 hours to 1 hour. If you now receive multiple responses within an hour you can select one of those as your Best Answer, or choose to put the question to vote at this earlier stage.

The full lifecycle of a question won’t change – questions will still be open for 4 days and up to maximum of 8 days if you extend the expiration. This change gives you the option to resolve earlier or put to vote earlier. If you take no action to resolve or extend the question, the question will automatically go to vote for the Best Answer.

Optional Preview screen when answering questions

Many of you have commented that to you’d prefer an answering experience without having to see your response on the Preview page first. We are now able to offer this…

If you are signed-in with your Answers account and have answered at least one question before then when submitting your answer you can choose to Submit your response immediately without going to the Preview page first. We’ve kept the Preview page too, so you can still see how your response will look before publishing it.

What makes Yahoo! Answers unique is the avid involvement of the community it is YOU that provides the content so continue to ask, answer and vote!

It’s August and whether you are planning a holiday to some great, exotic locale or are just back from one, Answers is the place to celebrate your vacation! This month, we are doing a special initiative in the Travel category where we invite you to share your fondest memories of landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes and skyscapes through your travel stories and anecdotes.

Spread over four weeks, with each week catering to one particular theme, this initiative will showcase the best holiday destinations and the most awesome travel stories that come from you! So start working on that travelogue of yours and include details like places to stay, things to see, best shopping deals and the like. And don’t forget to tell us why it is among your favourite holiday destinations! We’ll be awarding 50 bonus points for the best story each week.

Not only that, we invite you to share your favourite photograph of the vacation on one of these Flickr groups:

Landscape group – http://www.flickr.com/groups/100naturallandscapes/

Photo by Ian BC North

Cityscape group – http://www.flickr.com/groups/26328425@N00/

Photo by aufmkolk (hafoto.de)

Seascape group – http://www.flickr.com/groups/seascape/

Photo by S John Davey

Skyscape group - http://www.flickr.com/groups/98509261@N00/

Photo by cobalt123

Once you post your picture there, remember to leave us a comment with the Flickr link on the blog, or add the link in your answer. At the end of four weeks, your story and photograph could be featured on our blog.

And here are 5 steps to ensure your Flickr photo makes it to the contest:

1. Log in to http://www.flickr.com/
2. Sign up for Flickr with your Yahoo! id if you don’t have a Flickr account already
3. Join the Groups (whose links are mentioned above)
4. Upload your Travel photos there
5. Copy the link of your photo and use that in your answer!

This week’s question is about dreamy landscapes. Meadows full of flowers and green grass, a winding river, a roaring waterfall, awe-inspiring mountains, or endless deserts – what landscape inspired you the most and made for an unforgettable holiday? What was your most picturesque and idyllic holiday in the countryside?

Following last week’s changes to Search and the Fans/Contacts system we now have a few more changes to share with you…

Edit My Preferences page

To keep public information and your personal settings separate we’ve made further changes on the `Edit my preferences` pages.

As with the previous preference page you can still add your photo or avatar from here or change your screen name which will both be used across your Yahoo! experience.  We’ve made this page a little lighter to view by splitting out how you will be seen on Answers from your personal preferences on Privacy and Communications.

The Privacy and Communications tab gives you control to receive specific notifications such as when `someone becomes your fan` or when `there are new questions for My Saved Searches` – and whether you allow fans at all.

Hiding your profile

You may notice there is no longer the option to choose whether you `Show link to my Profile Page`.  This previously controlled whether you linked directly to your Pulse profile on Yahoo!

This setting is now controlled across all Yahoo! properties from `Settings`–> `Privacy` and the `Manage Privacy Settings` page on Yahoo! Pulse.

Many of you have voiced concerns about the misuse of the Fans and Contacts feature.

Firstly, we’re aware how strongly many of you feel about this and we’ve heard and taken on board your feedback: we’re sorry we’ve taken so long to address a problem that may have affected your experience of Answers.

However, as of today, we are now making improvements to how Contacts and Fans work on Answers to ensure that your experience on the site is better.

In addition to Contacts and Fans you’ll notice some changes to Voting limits on Answers. First of all…let’s cover Fans and Contacts:

What will my Fans see?

Anyone can become your fan by adding you as a `contact`. Once someone has added you as a contact:

• Fans will get latest updates when you ask questions in the `From my Network` tab

• Email notification when you ask a question

If you don’t want to allow fans at all – you can set this in your Preferences.

If you don’t want a certain member to be aware of this information you can block them from the My Network page.

If your Q&A and Answers network are marked as `My Contacts Only` on your`Preferences` page, Fans will not gain access to view your content or your network.

Want to know when someone has become your fan? You can activate a notification in your profile page to receive an email when someone becomes your fan.

What will my Contacts see?

Contacts are those people you choose to add and you will be sharing your content with them.

Once you add a contact they will:

• See your questions and answers

• Get an update on the homepage in the `From my Network` tab when you ask a question

• Have visibility of your Answers Network

Everyone likes to receive the kudos of having new `Fans` of their content and this change will keep the overall control of `who-sees-what` with you.

Keep watching this space – this will be just the first step in changes we have planned for how Contacts and Fans should work and the benefits they bring as we continue to make this feature work for you.

Changes to voting limits

We’ve noticed that many you in the Answers community are very avid voters!

To help you continue to feed this passion we’ve now increased the daily limits for the number of votes you can cast. The new maximum daily are:

• Level 1: 25 votes per day

• Level 2: 50 votes per day

• Level 3: 75 votes per day

• Level 4: 100 votes per day

• Level 5: 125 votes per day

• Level 6: 150 votes per day

• Level 7: 200 votes per day

So what’s stopping you? Get voting!

After receiving your feedback on Search within Answers we’re pleased to announce some major changes to the Search experience on Yahoo! Answers.

We’ve made quite a few changes to the search functionality, so to make navigation a bit easier, we’ve broken things down for you by section, so let’s get started.

The NEW Answers search page

Let’s take you through some of the changes you’ll see:

1) We’ve now added the ability to sort results by relevance, by newest/oldest, and by fewest/most answers directly to the top of your results.

You can continue to use the left hand navigation to customize your search and we’ve made some amends to these dropdowns:

2) Added filtering by `Tied questions` to the Question Status dropdown

3) Added a new dropdown to filter by `Number of Answers

4) Changed the time options available in the Date Submitted dropdown to give you a greater range of options and to include a filter for the `last 24 hours`

5) Next to the Search Answers button you’ll notice we’ve re-added `Advanced Search` so let’s take a deeper look at that next…

Advanced Search

Advanced Search is back and gives you even more options for customizing your search.

Advanced Search allows you to filter your search using specific parameters in order for you to receive results that are more accurate.  These filters are saved and added to your saved searches.

You can filter your search by using the following:
•    Keyword match in: All Q&A, Questions or Best Answers.
•    Category
•    Location: All English questions or US questions only.
•    Status: Open Questions, Questions in Voting, Tied or Resolved Questions
•    Number of Answers
•    Date Submitted

You can enter certain Boolean search terms in `Keywords`. These are: AND, ANDNOT, AND, OR Not sure about Boolean?  Then use the `All these words`, `any of these words`, `exact phrase` or `don’t include these words` boxes and we’ll insert the Boolean commands for you.

My Saved Searches

Many of you make use of the `Saved Search` option to help you quickly find content around your specialist subjects. We’ve now enhanced this feature so from the new My Saved Search page you can now:

- Save up to 10 searches. The main pane displays the selected search in real time.  The last sorting option you use is saved the next time you log in.

- Edit your searches to keep them up-to-date

- Delete your searches when you no longer need them

- Drag and drop to arrange your Saved Searches to get the most used ones at the top of the list

- Manage these searches from the new Saved Search page by editing or deleting

- Get your Saved Searches delivered as a daily digest email (see below)

- Have the Yahoo! Trending Topic of the day included in your search results.  You’ll notice one search already there which you didn’t search for.  We’ve given you a `trending       search` to start.  This is a keyword based on what is trending from Yahoo! Search.  It changes on a daily basis depending on what people are talking about on the web.  The trending   search can be deleted to give you full control of the 10 searches you save.  However, beware that once you delete the trending search it will be removed forever.

All your old saved searches will be migrated to the new My Saved Search so you might have 2 searches waiting for you.

To give you an incentive to test this feature out – as soon as you have 3 Saved Searches on your Saved Search page we will give you 20 points!  However, this will only be awarded once.

How do I save my search?

You can save your search from the following areas:
•    The Search homepage
•    Advanced Search page
•    My Saved Search page

Digest Email

We’ll soon be launching a new Digest Email that will send you an email once a day containing the top 3 questions from each of your Saved Searches.  The top 3 questions are sorted by the settings you save on your My Saved Searches page, so if you only want ‘in voting’ questions then those are the questions that will be delivered to you.  This will make your Answers experience more efficient since questions will be sent directly to your inbox!

For now, tick the box if you want to receive these emails and we’ll start sending out in the next few days.

We’ve left the decision on whether you want to receive this email to you.  You can opt in to this email  by checking the box at the bottom of the Advanced Search page or from you’re the Privacy and Communication tab on the `Edit My Preferences` page.

For those of you who bookmark your searches – we’ve respected this and it will still work.  But why not use Saved Search instead of Bookmarks and get the daily email as well as the bonus points?

We’d love to hear your feedback on the new features to search. Leave us a comment here on the blog or on the feedback thread on the Suggestion board. We trust you will find the new Search experience to be a useful addition to your Answers experience!

David Beckham needs no introduction.  He is one of the most iconic athletes and decorated football players of all-time. He is the second most capped England player in history, scoring in three FIFA World Cups.  However, David’s name now stretches beyond just football –in recent years, his name has also become synonymous with style, fashion, and recently, through his work as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he has become known as a key advocate of charity work.

Here at Yahoo! we are honoured to have David as our Global Ambassador working with Yahoo! Sport to interact with as many fans as possible and sharing his thoughts on subjects ranging from his favourite World Cup player to his preparation for the big day – with much more inbetween!  If you haven’t checked this out already, take a look at David’s coverage on Yahoo!

Here’s a taste of one his interviews:

The World Interviews David Beckham

Following the World Cup, we’ll be conducting one more interview with David and like everything else in his career, it’s going to be BIG!

We will be hosting The World Interviews David Beckham LIVE and exclusive on Yahoo! and YOU, the Answers community, are the ones with the golden opportunity to have your question put to David.

We’ve asked you the question:

If you could ask David Beckham one question, what will you ask him and why?

Maybe you want to ask about how his career took off? His future ambitions beyond football?  Or even find out what it is really like to walk out onto the pitch with 100,000 fans cheering your name?

Whatever your question, come up with the most original, interesting, topical or relevant question and yours could be the one we ask when the World Interviews David Beckham on July 14!

If that isn’t enough… we’ll also be rewarding the Best Answer for Yahoo! Canada Answers  with a football signed by David Beckham!!

Remember that your answer MUST follow all the Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. If you do not follow these guidelines your question will NOT be considered.

By answering the question you will be accepting our Competition Terms and Conditions.  The competition is only open to residents of Canada.

The Winner

We’ll be announcing the Best Answer and competition winner on Monday 12^th July and will contact the winner through the email address associated with the Yahoo! Answers account.

The winning question will be announced on this blog and on our Facebook pages.   Be our fan on Facebook and you’ll get the updates immediately.

Happy answering and Good Luck!

You will now notice a cool new Yahoo! Answers feature that will allow you to share your Answers content with your Facebook friends! This means your friends on Facebook can now help you answer your questions if you choose to share them. Your Facebook friends can also join Yahoo! Answers and connect with our amazing community to have the many questions they have answered.

What are the benefits?

One of the many advantages of social networking sites is having the ability to connect with thousands of people.   Linking your Answers account with your Facebook account increases the number of people that can answer your questions!  Some of the benefits are:

1. Make it easier for your non-Answers friends to answer your questions if you choose to share them beyond Answers
2. If you choose to share your great answers with your Facebook friends too then they will see your answers right at the top of the list when coming to Answers from Facebook

Control options:

On the `Preview` page you’ll see the check-boxes for where you want to share your questions and answers to.  The setting you choose here will be the default for all of your content but you have the option to change this with every posting.  This gives you full control over which info you want to share with your friends and those questions you want to ask only to the Answers community.

Things to keep in mind:

If you do decide to share your Answers activity with your friends on Facebook, keep in mind that your Answers screen name will be visible.  Your Answers activity will be associated with your Facebook identity and vice versa, which means your Facebook friends will be able to see all your Answers activity (including past activity).   If your friends on Facebook ‘like’ your question, their contacts will be able to see this activity too.

Remember, more visibility to your questions means more answers from a wider range of contacts so we hope you will find the new Facebook integration a useful addition to your Answers experience!

Once you have started sharing your Answers and Facebook accounts, “tell us what you think on the Forum or leave your comments here, on the blog.

–Yahoo! Answers Team

Over the past few weeks we’ve made several exciting new changes to the overall Answers experience including changes to the look and feel of the site, as well as a new search experience  for Yahoo! Answers.

While these changes have taken place, many of you have had questions about where we have relocated your favorite features, and what changes lie ahead. Below you’ll find some of the most commonly asked questions and their answers.

Q: Previously, I could click on “My Profile” to go straight to my profile page. This link is gone—how do I get to this page now?

A: To easily access your profile page, you can either click on your name next to the “Hello” message, or, click on the “My Activity” tab to jump straight to your profile.

Q: Below my name there’s now an “invite your friends” link—what does this do?”

A:   Clicking on the “Invite your friends” link allows you to easily invite any of your friends to join you on Yahoo! Answers.  From this page, you can easily enter in the email addresses of your family and friend and encourage them to join you on Answers—that way if you’ve recently asked a question on Answers and think your Aunt Sally may know the Answer but know she’s not on Answers, you can easily get her on board, and, get her to answer your question!

Please note that if you’re a Level 1 member, instead of seeing “invite your friends” you’ll instead see a link reading, “What are points and levels?,” encouraging you to learn more about Answers. For members who are level 2 and higher, you’ll be seeing this link added in under the “About” tab in the near future.

Q: How do I see my suggested questions?

A: If you have suggested questions, they’ll show up on your homepage as they did before. Currently, we don’t have a message in place that tells you “there are no suggested questions available at this time” but we’re looking to add this back in the near future.

Q: How do I see my recent activity details?

A: To see your recent activity details, just click on the “My Activity” tab—from here, you can see your activity summary, your activity details, as well as your questions, answers, starred questions and your watchlist.

Also from this page, you can easily click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to edit the content found within your Answers profile, or, if you’re elsewhere on the Answers site, just hover back on the “My Activity” tab and click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to be taken to the same edit screen.

Q: Now that you’ve changed the look and feel of Answers, what’s next?

A: We always have a few tricks up our sleeve, so be on the lookout for new things heading your way. In the meantime, we still love hearing your thoughts about the new homepage and the changes to search, so please keep the constructive feedback coming!

If you have additional “how-to” questions about the new homepage or search, or, just want to tell us what you think, please leave a comment below or stop by the Suggestion Board!

On Yahoo! Answers, there are lots of ways to receive recognition for hard work, quality Answers, and interesting Questions—they take can take the shape of thumbs up, stars, or Best Answers– these are all controlled by you, the Answers community.

In addition to this, Yahoo! Answers also has something called the “Best of Answers” module. This rotating module featured on the Answers homepage showcases some of the quirky and interesting content that we come across on the Answers site. Typically this content is handpicked by a combination of Yahoo! Answers team members and editorial team members who surf the site looking for interesting questions that might pique your interest.

In addition to the “Best of Answers” module, every so often, a question from Answers is also featured on the Front Page of Yahoo—visible to literally millions of Yahoo! users in a single day.

We know that each day, each of you, come across potentially hundreds of interesting, quirky, and fantastic questions that YOU consider “the best of Answers”—so we want to see them!

What’s the catch, and what are the rules?

* Questions must have been asked and answered within the last 3 months – freshness matters!
* No questions containing profanity, obscenity, relating to sex, alcohol, etc.
* Questions must follow the Community Guidelines
* Answers should be thorough and complete and should NOT be plagiarized. Here’s an example of a good question and answer: Is eating the inside of an orange peel good for you?
* Question and answer should be relatively free from typos and grammatical errors

What do I get if my question is picked?

If we select your question and feature it on either the Yahoo! Front Page or in the “Best of Answers” module, we’ll award whoever suggested the question to us, 100 extra points on Answers.

Ok, so where do I submit my questions?

Think you have a winner on your hands? Submit your questions to us via email at: y_answrs_favorites@yahoo.com

If we select your question, we’ll send you an email notifying you that your question has been selected and you should see the bonus points in your account shortly.

We can’t wait to see what types of questions you send our way, so start searching the site, scouring your watchlist, and sharing your favorites with the team!