Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

It’s time for another product release, which means new features and enhancements for Answers. As we’ve said before, the top priority for our team is to make sure you have a pleasant experience using our site, and that low quality Q&A does not get in your way. In this release, we’ve added tools that help us progress towards meeting our goals.

What’s new?

Home Page: I’m sure you’ve already noticed the changes to the Answers homepage in this release. The biggest change is the new featured content area which highlights the Best of Answers. Everyone likes seeing great content on Answers, so we’ve made some adjustments to our processes for surfacing the best content that the site has to offer. The Best of Answers is a dedicated space to showcase quality, smart, and interesting Q&A. So, keep an eye out – your question or answer may get featured as part of the Best of Answers!

Best Answer Percentage: By request, we’ve updated the avatar rollover to include best answer percentages. Now you can see whether a user has been contributing best answers to the site, without having to click through to his or her profile page. This feature is a step towards adding recognition into the system for users who are contributing best answers across the site.

Answer Filtering: In our last release, we added the ability to sort answers by rating — bringing highly rated answers to the top of the answer list. This time we’ve added even more control over how you view answers by including the option to collapse answers based on community ratings. Also, your sorting preferences will stick across questions and answers throughout Yahoo!7 Answers, so if you prefer, you can choose to exclusively view answers that the community has marked with thumbs-up ratings.

Question Categorisation: We heard your complaints about questions being categorised improperly, and we agree. So, we came up with a solution. Now, when you ask a question, Answers will suggest a list of categories for you so you can now categorise your questions quickly and easily. This new feature will also help improve your experience browsing categories in Answers, as wrongly categorised questions should show up less frequently in your favourite categories.

Address Book: Ever wanted to email your friend a great question? Well, now it’s easy to send Answers content to anyone in your address book. Our email a friend form now accesses your address book, so when you click on the email icon in the action bar you will have access to all of the email addresses stored in your address book.

The Answers team is already hard at work on the next round of product features aimed at improving the quality of the site, so please continue to let us know what you think by sending us feedback. We hope you are enjoying Answers as much as the team enjoys working on new features.

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

What steps can we take to conserve water?

Not content with five Grammy Awards, Jay-Z is also an advocate for water conservation and for the one billion people around the world who lack access to safe drinking water. Speaking on United Nations Radio, Jay-Z said he plans to use his music to educate people in conserving water as it is such a big issue. Accompanied by his fiance, Beyonce, Jay-Z is currently in Australia performing with Rihanna and Ne-Yo on their Roc tha Block tour. 

With Australia being the driest inhabited continent in the world, we are very aware of the importance in conserving water and no doubt, Jay-Z can pick up a few tips of this water crisis. Amid claims by Prime Minister John Howard that linked the drought to global warming, yesterday the Federal Government announced a further $560 million in drought relief  for Australia’s struggling farmers, taking the current aid figure to more than $2 billion.

Permanent water conservation measures are in place all over the country. We all know about the strict Mandatory Water Restrictions, outlining how we can and can’t use water - Australia, is, however, not alone.

Southern Spain, south-eastern England and western and southern France are viewed as chronically vulnerable, while eyes are anxiously following water availability in parts of Portugal, Italy and Greece, incompletely recovered from the scorcher of three years ago.

In Spain, reservoirs and water tables are at their lowest levels in 10 years, failing to recharge after last year’s drought, which was the worst since reliable record-keeping began in 1947. In south-eastern England, reserves of water are only at 54% of capacity, after the driest winter since 1963-4. As a result, drought orders and other restrictions have been issued to 13 million people for the first time in this region in 11 years, amounting to bans on hosepipes, sprinklers, car washing, the filling of swimming pools and other non-essential uses.

As part of Jay-Z’s voyage to bring awareness of the world water crisis, he is building 10 PlayPumps in Africa. Each PlayPump can be named, but we heard Jay-Z is having a bit of a hard time coming up with a name. So, Yahoo!7 Answers are collecting your suggestions for him - Simply leave your PlayPump name ideas below and we will pass them on.

Don’t forget to check out Yahoo!7 Music this week to see how Rihanna and Ne-Yo have been pimpin’ tha pages.

Alana

What can we do to stop arms dealing to countries that use weapons against their own people?

This is the question that Jamiroquai frontman, Jay Kay, is wondering and has asked in the Politics & Government category.

Jay Kay? In Politics and Government? Surely he is a musician? Indeed Jay Kay has spent the last 15 years of his life making music in the band Jamiroquai. However, he was keen to ask a question on an issue that is affecting many people around the world in countries with unscrupulous governments who often do not have a voice to ask this question themselves.
Where are these arms produced and who are the biggest arms dealers in the world? In 2005, Russia, USA, Germany, UK and France controlled 82% of the market. This is quite shocking given that four of these countries are permanent UN members.

The sales of arms to countries with dubious human rights records is supposedly controlled with embargoes, however with the globalisation of the arms industry, loopholes allow weapons to get through. The use of these weapons on civilians causes human rights violations, death and misery for millions of people.

So how can we make a difference? Later this month, the UN will vote on a resolution towards creating a stronger Arms Trade Treaty. One way you can take action and make a difference is to send a message to the foreign ministers of countries that facilitate the distribution of arms to embargoed countries.

By following this link you can voice your support for the treaty by sending a message to these ministers with just one click of your mouse…

Maybe you have other ideas that can make a difference? If so, we want to hear them, and so does Jay Kay.

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

As I have mentioned before, I am an avid traveller, so I have tested out my fair share of bars.  To name a favourite is a difficult choice, but one I will definitely put my mind to so that I can answer All Saints actress Allison Cratchley‘s question – What is the best bar in the world and why?

The never-resolved question on whether  Sydney or Melbroune has better bars is always fun. In a website about the best bars in the world, it was great to read the summary on Sydney and Melbourne, but there were so many fantastic bars missing. Never fear… you can find them in Yahoo!7 Answers!

I agree with a lot of the suggestions by beejay and James Tran on Sydney bars and I love the bars around Oxford Street.

Melbourne is so well known for its eclectic bar scene. You can hear reggae music while you enjoy a beverage, sit, listen and drink with your partner/date, or have a casual drink with your mates on a Thursday night.

After you have answered Allison’s global question, leave us a comment below and let everyone know what your favourite Australian bar is.

Alana

What a race! With only half a second between 1st and 2nd place and a miniscule 0.005 of a second between 3rd and 4th, the 2006′s Bathurst 1000 was one of the best I have seen in a long time. 

Ever since I was a little girl I have been going with my dad to Mount Panorama in Bathurst to see and hear the action at one of the world’s most difficult race tracks. These days it’s all about Ford versus Holden in the V8 Supercars race, but there was a time when the race included production cars and 2 litre turbos (the latter being my favourite!).

In celebration and memorium of the late Peter Brock‘s outstanding career with a massive 9 wins on Mount Panorama, the new Peter Brock Memorial Trophy went to the Ford Team of Lowndes and Whincup. Even though Brocky, as he was affectionately called, was part of the Holden team, it was fitting that Lowndes won it as he had been mentored by Brocky as a young racer and they had been friends for many years.

There were many thrills and almost as many spills with cars that were totalled from the first lap and onwards. Condolences go to Mark Porter’s family after he was killed in preparation for yesterday’s race and our thoughts are also with David Clark as he recovers from his injuries.

Alana

It seems everyone is looking for innovation - From the beginning of civilisation to modern-day business practises or improving people’s lives in the third world, innovation changes the way we live our lives.

Having worked most of my career in IT-related fields I have seen innovation change the way we do things every day. Innovation, however, doesn’t need to be associated with a micro-processor. In a question posed by porthuronbilliam, Salvador m tells us that mankind’s most important innovation is the alphabet, but there are some other really great answers as well. It is also interesting to point out the difference between creativity and innovation.

DJ Pete Tong is asking the Answers community to think about innovations that will change the face of music over the next decade and, as we begin Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Hillary Clinton is asking you to tell her how we can prevent and help eradicate breast cancer.

And when it comes to innovations, the Yahoo!7 Answers Team is always interested in your thoughts on how to make Answers even better. Leave your comments underneath and you may just find we take on your idea!

Alana