Yahoo! Canada Answers Blog

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!

The next time you log into Yahoo! Answers you may notice things look a little bit different. We’re rolling out a new homepage and navigation over the next few days. Don’t worry: if you don’t see the new changes just yet, you will soon.

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

New Answers Homepage

1- New Navigation
You may have noticed that atop the Answers banner, there are four new, navigation tabs: Home, Browse Categories, My Activity, and About. Each of these tabs (as well as the green Answers banner) will stay with you throughout your experience on the site, making it easier for you to get to the places on Answers you care about most.

New Navigation

Home: This brings you back to the main page of Answers, where you can see the Best of Answers rotating module, the link to the Answers Blog (which is now on the right hand side, as well as the most recent questions posted on the site.

Browse categories: more about this below

My activity: From here, you can go directly to your Answers profile, view your network, your network activity, and even edit your preferences.

About: Learn all about Answers, revisit the Community Guidelines, check out the leaderboard, Suggestion Board,  and visit the Answers Blog.

2 – Browsing categories

New Category Browse

On the old Answers homepage all of the categories were permanently displayed on the left hand column, hogging up homepage space that could have been used for valuable questions. We’ve decided to tuck the categories away under the top hide-away menu where you can easily access them any time, or, if you want to view them all at once, just click on the browse category tab to be taken to the “All Categories” page. From here, you’ll be able to peruse all of the questions that are: open, resolved or in voting on the site.

3- An updated look and feel
Over the past few years we’ve heard from quite a few of you that you love the Answers green but it’s just a little too green. So we’ve taken your feedback to heart and have toned down the green just a bit and have replaced the white background with a light blue that is a little easier on the eyes. Our smilies (4) have also received a facelift and look a bit more polished throughout the site.

Additionally, you’ll notice that the page feels a bit wider—one thing we heard from you when we introduced the new category pages several months back was that you liked the extra space. This extra space allows us to display even more questions on the homepage, making it easier for you to jump right in.

But wait, there’s more!

This release doesn’t just include cosmetic changes—we also included quite a few backend bug fixes, as well as a few feature requests, like updating the category leaderboards much more regularly. Starting today, category leaderboards will update on a daily basis instead of weekly.

Please note they will NOT be real-time, but will update at the end of each day (PST).  This means at 2pm PST on Thursday, your points total will show as it was at 23:59 PST on Wednesday.

Tell us what you think

Once you’ve given the new homepage a test drive, tell us what you think! We’ve started two threads on the Suggestion Board for the new homepage—one for questions and one for comments – and we’ll be checking them regularly.  Additionally, you’re always welcome to use the “Tell us what you think” link found at the bottom of every Yahoo! Answers page.

You’re also welcome to leave your comments here, on the blog.

Thanks, and we hope you like it!

As I am pushing 30, I am slowly entering that phase where all my high school friends seem to be tying the knot at the same time. It’s like they all made some sort of secret pact to simultaneously walk down the aisle. When the high school sweethearts got engaged, I was not surprised- they had already begun exchanging vows in the sandbox and everyone was expecting to receive an invite any day now. When the old-fashioned friends – the ones who must be married before they’re 30 – decided to get hitched, I was not worried either because they always treated being single like a ticking bomb.

However, I did freak out when I was invited to see notorious Lotharios put a ring on it. Suddenly, I felt like I was destined to join the eternally single gals club. If there is one group that has been consistently looked down upon over the years, it’s that one. The thought of ending my days as an old maid only crossed my mind for a second because I do enjoy being single. With time, I decided to accept the fact that I am taking my time because it is better to wait than rush into things. After all, it`s not a race to the altar.

Do you think people should be married by a certain age?

On Tuesday, January 12, Haiti was struck by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, centered 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince. The quake has caused widespread damage and casualties and structural damage. At this point, authorities are unsure as to just how much damage the quake has caused but know that its impact was vast and intense.

In times like these, it is important for communities to band together to provide support.

On Answers, we form a community of collective knowledge- but in the real world, together, we create a collective bound together by one thing: humanity, and the ability to endure. And in times like these, it’s important to remember that, and to help others persevere.

According to the Associated Press, “it was clear from a tour of the capital that tens of thousands of people had lost their homes and that many had perished. Many buildings in Haiti are flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions.”

To learn more about how you can send your support to help the victims of the earthquake in Haiti please follow the links below.

- World Vision Canada

- Red Cross

- The Humanitarian Coalition

-Unicef

-Oxfam

- Salvation Army

It was recently reported that BeautifulPeople.com – the website behind the latest headline-grabbing stunt – has expelled more than 5,000 users from its global community. The reason? These members have been found guilty of posting pictures of themselves over the Holidays showing a heavier waist line. As if the whole purpose of the site was not controversial enough – it bans “ugly people” from joining its ranks – the recently excluded “festive fatties” have been encouraged to re-apply once their physical appearance can be deemed attractive again.

Many might cringe or scream foul at the idea of a social networking site that prides itself in promoting ‘gorgeous’ people exclusively, but aren’t we all guilty of it? After all, we all like to see and be around beautiful people.  We may advocate inner beauty, but at the end of the day, who doesn’t indulge in fantasies involving Beyonce or Megan Fox?  Is there anything wrong with being shallow sometimes?

It’s beginning to look a lot like that time of the year again. The magic of Christmas is in the air. Before we bid farewell to 2009, let us remember the lessons we learned this year and  apply them in 2010. Whether you plan to check out Hollywood’s latest Christmas release or attend a glamorous new year’s eve party, we hope you enjoy yourself.

Wishing you every happiness this holiday season and throughout the coming year.

Happy Holidays!

Back in October we announced that with your help, Yahoo! Answers hit the 1 billion question and answers mark. At this point, we also had a whopping 179 million users around the world. Just when we thought our community couldn’t grow any faster, a mere two months later, we’ve hit the 200 million-worldwide visitor mark!

When you break it down, on average, that’s:

* 350,000 new  visitors a day
* 243 new visitors a minute

So here’s a big thanks to you, the Answers community for spreading the word about Answers, and sharing with your friends, family, and anyone you meet on the internet about what you’ve learned (and what you want to learn!) on Answers.

At this rate, we’ll hit 300 million in no time!

This year, Yahoo! Answers Canada has seen its fair share of questions and answers—you’ve covered everything under the sun—from questions about current events such as “balloon boy” to Michael Jackson’s death to everyday questions about culture to tackling tough questions about the economy and unemployment.

We’ve gone through some of the best (and quirkiest) content on Answers to create this year’s highlight book. This year’s e-book contains 12 questions from Answers users, just like you, that showcase some of the unique questions and answers you’ll find on Yahoo! Answers- as well as a few outstanding community members you might come across while perusing the site.

So view the book 2009 Highlights (3406) and explore some of the content found on Answers (this will prompt you to download a small PDF file).

Download the e-book here: 2009 Highlights (3406)

It’s that time of the year ladies. The new installment of the Twilight Franchise is right around the corner. The vampire fad is peaking yet again and many questions are being raised about whether or not this iddyllic love story is creating the unattainable expectations for young girls Edward Cullen – the vampire who sweeps Bella off her feet . Can you imagine a young Twilighter in her first romantic relationship? Does Edward Cullen give women in general an unrealistic expectation from men?

It’s hard for regular guys to rise to the bar he’s set, especially when women are idealizing Edward to the point where real men can’t compete anymore. Some would say vampires appeal to us because they can literally love you forever if they choose too. The term eternity takes a whole new meaning. In Edward Cullen’s case, centuries of practice to master the art of seduction could be the reason why so many girls are in complete awe over him. No matter it is, it is certainly intriguing.

Have you been bitten by the vampire bug? What do you think of the fascination with vampires?