Yahoo! Canada Answers Blog

My Yahoo! (http://ca.my.yahoo.com) is your personal Yahoo! home page that you access with your user name and password. You can personalise this page to display the modules you decide, including local or world news, your favourite sports and groups or any other service from Yahoo! or the Internet. Of course, Yahoo! Canada Answers is also available on My Yahoo!

To add Yahoo! Canada Answers to your My Yahoo! page, go to http://ca.my.yahoo.com and sign in. You will see a page like this:

To personalise your modules, options and page, click on the buttons on top of the page:

To add content, click Add Content. You will be able to select from the options you will be offered, and add RSS modules using the URL. For example, if you want to add the Yahoo! Canada Answers module, you can search for it or type “http://ca.answers.yahoo.com” in the option “RSS by URL“. Then click Add.

To make your page look unique, or to change the colours or the style, click Change Appearance.

If you want to modify any other setting, click More Options.

You can drag and drop the modules to make your My Yahoo! page look exactly the way you want (for example, you can have the most interesting information on top).

If you have your Yahoo! Canada Answers module on My Yahoo!, you can stay up-to-date with everything that’s going on in the Answers community.

P.S. Remember: you can also add the Yahoo! Canada Answers blog (http://www.yanswersblogcanada.com) to My Yahoo! to keep track of the latest posts!

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Flickr photo by specialkrb

Every summer needs a blockbuster and this year is no different. Batman is back! As the latest edition of one of the most famous superheroes is out this week, we’ve partnered with Yahoo! Movies to bring a little The Dark Knight frenzy to Yahoo! Answers.

We’re asking you, the Answers community around the world, for the perfect question for Christian Bale. The best question will be put to him, on your behalf, by Yahoo! and recorded on video.

So, what do you want to ask Christian? When you’ve decided on your killer question, just post it as a comment below.

Tim Burton was the first director to immortalise Batman on the big screen and ever since Michael Keaton’s impressive performance alongside Kim Basinger, the caped crusader has had many changing faces. In The Dark Knight, actor Christian Bale brings to life Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman, who’s fighting against the fearful Joker, played by the late Heath Ledger. Rumour is we see our hero cross the thin line between good and evil like never before …

You have until Monday, 21 July, 2008 to post your question below. We’ll then select the best question from all the Answers communities around the world who have participated, and it will be answered by Christian on video and posted on the blog next week.

For more information about The Dark Knight and a sneak peek of the film, check out the Yahoo! Movies trailer.

Yahoo! Canada Answers Team

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Flickr photo by thebittenword.com

I always enjoy a great meal, but in the summer time it seems like food gets even better. Maybe it’s because you can finally eat outside again, but it’s more likely because of the new options.

Freshly picked vegetables are finally starting to appear in markets. Bite into a fresh strawberry and you will never want to go back to the imported grocery store variety. Fresh fruits and berries make for some tasty smoothies and desserts. If you are really daring, you can try more exotic fruits such as a jackfruit, dragonfruit or rambutan.

The nicer weather also means the smell of barbeque is in the air. No one wants to heat their house cooking up a storm, so steaks and chicken and fish can all be grilled or smoked outside. Don’t forget to bring your fresh veggies outside as well. Most vegetables can all be done to perfection on the BBQ — just think of kabobs and baked potatoes and corn on the cob.

If, like me, you don’t have the luxury of an outdoor grill, you can still make loads of summerlicious meals without baking for hours. Salads are the most obvious choice, but don’t sigh at the thought of boring garden veggies. Spice things up by adding whatever you have handy in the fridge, such as cheeses, or combining different varieties of fruits and vegetables. Making your own dressings is a lot easier than it sound and changes your whole meal in seconds. Add your leftovers to create taco salads, chicken salads or steak salad. Make your own creation and share it on Answers with those who are in a food rut.

Greasy, comfort foods are great sometimes, but take advantage of all this freshness while you can. Explore locals fruit and vegetable markets that make the possibilities at dinnertime endless.

What’s your favourite summer food or recipe?

Stephanie

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Hey everyone!

Some of you have reported issues when receiving e-mail notifications about your network activity. We are aware of this and working to fix it.

While we do so, here’s another way of checking what your Answers buddies are doing:

1. Sign in to Yahoo! Canada Answers.

2. Under the Best of Answers module, you’ll see a link that says My Network’s Q&A.

3. Click on it. You’ll be taken to a page where you will see all your friends’ questions, answers and starred questions.

Cool, huh? 

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We’re really pleased to announce that Yahoo! Answers has been nominated as one of Time.com’s 50 best web sites of 2008. This list is compiled to show the best that the web has to offer – and we’re in it!

All of us on the international Answers team are really proud of this recognition and we hope that you, the community, feel equally as proud. It is your participation, passion and knowledge that has enabled us to become the Number 1 Knowledge Questions and Answers site in the world and to be nominated in this way.

As you can imagine, this is a great achievement when you consider all of the sites on the web. So, we wanted to say a big “Thank you and congratulations!” to you for being so great – we couldn’t have done it without you!

If you want to read the whole article, click here and see which web sites ranked the highest on the 2008 Time.com list.

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The experience of putting a question to the community and seeing the answers flowing to your inbox is gratifying. Picking the ultimate answer for your question gives you the opportunity to share the outcome of your query with millions of people.

Yet for those indecisive people out there who can’t really make their minds up on a Best Answer, they can put their question up for voting and let the community decide.

Voting for Best Answers is a way to share your opinion and make a difference within the community. Not only do you help other members solve their quick crises or philosophical flounderings, you also gain points as you vote.

In his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde wrote: “You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.” Voting for Best Answers can help you master both. You can share your opinions and test your knowledge by resolving others’ problems. But also you might discover great new things by browsing undecided questions and judging which deserves to be its Best Answer.
So, if you know the best recipe for deep-fried cheesecake, the difference between precipitation and condensation or the best advice for travelling by car with a dog, why not take a moment to help the community out?
Yahoo! Canada Answers Team

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Flickr photo by deaf dude

So much of our lives are spent worrying about what is going on in other countries through news of elections, wars and stocks. But on July 1^st, all my thoughts are going to be red and white for a day.

On Canada Day, we can all celebrate what brings us together instead of worrying about our heritage, language and religion. We all love Canada and that should be good enough. We can show off all those crazy stereotypes that make us one of the best countries in the world.

No matter how much we complain about our cold winters and short summers, this is a pretty amazing country to live in. I’ve decided that I want to try to spend Canada Day watching the fireworks in a different city each year, so that I will be able to see more of this country.

Because our country is so multicultural, it can sometime be hard to define who we are. Whether you think of poutine, beer or hockey, there is definitely something connecting us all that make us proud of our country.

Join us in celebrating our Canadian culture by telling our Yahoo! Canada Editors what being a Canadian means to you.

Happy Canada Day!
Stephanie

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Flickr photo by Dmitry Kichenko

Honestly, I am not much of a summer person. I like it that it is sunny and the days are longer, sure. But I don’t do well in the heat and humidity. That said, a LOT of people are summer people and I am glad for that. People become so much happier at the mere mention of the word.

Whether you love it or hate it, summer is officially here. It’s time to strip yourself of warm layers of clothing and squish your toes in the sand or lay in a park under a tree. I have to admit, there is so much more to do in the summer because we Canadians don’t have to worry about frostbite any longer! We can finally put those patios, boats and cottages to use.

While I might not love the intense heat, there are still a lot of things I would love to get done before we get hit with extreme cold alerts again. I hope I get a chance to go camping or at least to spend the afternoon on a beach somewhere, relaxing with a book and a Frisbee. I really want to get out of my city and see a place that I haven’t been to before.

I would also like to explore my own hometown while it is nice out. Photography is one of my hobbies, so getting out with a camera on a warm day to find little niches and areas that I usually ignore would be great fun. I could feel like a tourist at home for a day.

If it gets too hot, there is always my favourite retreat from the heat, the movie theatre. With blockbusters like The Dark Knight and The Pineapple Express coming out in the middle of summer, I can enjoy their AC with a big bag of popcorn.

So enjoy the sun, while I suffer without air conditioning! What’s your favourite / least favourite thing about summer?

Stephanie

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Flickr photo by pjotr_

The Yahoo! Answers engineers are scheduled to perform regular maintenance on Thursday, June 19, starting at 02.00 a.m. ET.

We expect the work to last about 2½ hours and there will be a total outage on Yahoo! Canada Answers during this time.

We’re sorry for any inconvenience, and will keep you posted if there are any changes to the schedule.

If you are looking for something else to do during this time, why not check out some of our new and updated sites?

* Flickr (now with video!)
* Yahoo! Canada Travel
* Yahoo! Canada Music
* Yahoo! Canada Video

Or, maybe you can check out what’s on the tube or what’s in store for your future?

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Flickr photo by Eszter

We’ve been so busy, we almost forgot it’s our birthday! Two years ago in June, curious Canadians found a place to get all their questions answered, and we have definitely come a long way since our humble beginnings. As I write this, we have nearly 650,000 closed questions on Yahoo! Canada Answers — hopefully we can get to a million before our next b-day. So keep on voting!

We have made some great friends on our top contributors board over the past two years. Our number 1 contributor in Canada, bgee2001ca, has over 6,000 Best Answers and can help you get up to date on anything you need to know aboutnews and current events. The rest of our TC’s are experts in everything from dogs to cooking to video games. Their expertise is what has made Yahoo! Canada Answers such a great place to be. I love knowing I can get useful info about everything from buying a new computer to caring for my kitten quickly here.

We’ve also made some great friends in our celebrity Askers. We’ve been proud to work with some awesome well-known Canadian faces over the past year, including The Hour host George Stroumboulopoulos, music historian Alan Cross, Kids in the Hall alum Scott Thompson and Barenaked Ladies lead singer Steven Page.

Although Yahoo! Canada Answers is in its “terrible twos” now, we promise not to throw tantrums — although we may need the odd nap or time-out from time to time, in order to make improvements and implement new features that we hope you’ll enjoy. Stay tuned!

Thank you to all our Askers and Answerers for being with us over the past two years!

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