Yahoo!7 Answers Blog Australia

By now most of you would have seen my blog posts over the last few weeks, but for those who haven’t… hello!

My name is Kate and I’m the new Community Manager for Yahoo!7 Answers. I’ve got big shoes to fill after Caitlin’s wonderful management of the community for the past eighteen months, so please let me know if there’s something you think I should be doing or something you’d like to see on this blog.

I’ve been with Yahoo!7 since its inception in 2006, when Channel Seven and Yahoo! joined together in a joint venture. If you are a fan of either Yahoo!7 Mail or Messenger, you would be familiar with me from our Yahoo!7 Mail & Messenger Blog, both products of which I’ve been working on for the past two years.

Behind the scenes, our team also consists of Morgan (my boss!) and Tim, our Community Product Manager. The team also rounds out with Tasla, our Mail and Messenger Product Manager. You may hear from them occasionally here.

Outside work, I like to spend time with my family and friends. I love walking my dogs, reading, playing all kinds of sport and am most recently attempting to cycle to work… so if you have any tips, be sure to leave them here (trust me I need them!!). The nitty gritty of my sporting allegiances: the Wallabies, St George Illawarra Dragons, NSW Waratahs and Sydney Swans.

I look forward to working with and getting to know all of you over the coming months and going forward into 2010

Kate
Community Manager

You have one day left to get your answers in for:

• What is Yahoo!7 Answers to you?

We’re putting together a book with the Yahoo!7 Answers achievements of 2009. We’ll be giving you a rundown of our favourite sponsors, celebrities and special features of the year as well as some of the best questions.

And in true community style, we’d like you to contribute! We’d love to know in 50 words or less, what Yahoo!7 Answers is or means to you.

Conditions
Keep it to 50 words or less.

All answers will be considered, with the four best to be featured in the 2009 version!

Kate
Community Manager

We know that when visiting Yahoo!7 Answers you’re here either to ask a question or answer a question. For many of you, your main objective is to lend a hand and answer as many questions about your area of expertise as possible, but oftentimes, you’re unable to easily find the right types of questions.

While a basic search (using the top search bar) will produce quick search results, the advanced search function will help you pinpoint specific terms within targeted categories.

Answers community member, Calimecita who is well known across the community for her expertise in Biology/Zoology, is also a savvy Answers member and has worked with us to provide useful Answers tips from Answers users.

Using Advanced Search you can:

• Find questions that match specific words or phrases, and/or exclude specific terms.
• Search questions or best answers only
• Search by category or subcategory
• Choose to search among all English vs only your home portal questions
• Filter by question status (open, resolved, undecided)
• Restrict by question time frame

You also have the option of saving this search and making it your default “advanced search” for the future by checking the “Make this my default search” box.

“With Advanced Search, I can locate open questions about specific topics quickly and efficiently, without restricting myself to a single category. I’ve even set up a few Yahoo!7 Alerts based on the RSS feeds from these Search results, so that I receive those questions as emails.”

Cali also says, “when I need an Answer, I restrict my search to Resolved Questions only and use some of the other options, such as “search for exact phrase” and “none of these words”, to find very specific content (for example, information about turkeys that doesn’t involve Thanksgiving recipes, or a question about vampires – not the Twilight kind ).

I see lots of comments and requests in the Suggestion Board for ways to do these things – and many users don’t know that Advanced Search is the answer.”

For an even more in-depth look at what the advanced search feature can do for you, stop by Calimecita’s Unofficial Answers Tutorial, found here: http://calitorial.webs.com/searchsort.htm

It’s now mid-November and time to really start thinking about Christmas shopping… socks and undies for your brother, maybe a good novel for Dad, a cookbook for Mum, maybe some perfumed soap for Grandma. The weather is now getting distinctly warmer, with temperatures well into the 30’s across most states this week and we’re beginning to wrap up things and look forward to the inevitable round of Christmas parties and general merriment.

It’s also a time to reflect and look back at the year that was, as well as look forward to 2010 and those New Year resolutions we always intend to keep, but never really do (well I usually don’t, oops!).

With this in mind, we’re putting together a book with the Yahoo!7 Answers achievements of 2009. We’ll be giving you a rundown of our favourite sponsors, celebrities and special features of the year as well as some of the best questions.

And in true community style, we’d like you to contribute! We’d love to know in 50 words or less, what Yahoo!7 Answers is or means to you.

Tell us about it here:
What is Yahoo!7 Answers to you?

Conditions
Keep it to 50 words or less.

All answers will be considered, with the four best to be featured in the 2009 version!

And if you haven’t done so already, please let us know what you think are the best Questions and Answers of 2009!

Kate
Community Manager

Last night, some of the team here at Yahoo!7 attended an event around social media and online audiences hosted by Social Media Club Sydney.

The guest speakers included Drew Parkes from Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division to talk about the 22 million strong global community that is XBox Live and MC Hammer, ranked 14th most influential person on Twitter according to WeFollow, to share his experiences with social media. What followed was an intuitive and frank discussion about the importance of engaging online audiences through social media.

Thank you to Mr Parkes and Mc Hammer for taking the time to share their knowledge and experience.

During the event, a Twitter feed was running on a projector screen with questions to MC Hammer asked from the tweets. I did post a question from us but alas there were so many people and questions, it didn’t receive an answer. It was still pretty cool to see Yahoo!7 Answers represented though!

MC Hammer also made the following appearances on the Seven Network this morning:

• Sunrise – click to view the video.
• The Morning Show:

If you were ever lucky enough to ask MC Hammer a question, what would you say? Leave a comment below!

Kate
Community Manager

Need an early Christmas present? With all this doom and gloom, we need a bit of cheering up, and fortunately Yahoo!7 has just the solution. Win 1 of 4 ultimate prize packs including a Blue-ray home theatre system, 46-inch Sony Bravia LCD TV and a new-look 120 gigabyte Playstation 3.

So what do you have to do to win this fabulous prize? Simply click here and follow the steps to set Yahoo!7 as your homepage. When you’ve confirmed that it is your homepage, enter your details and you’ll be in the draw to win television magic.*

Imagine how good Brad Pitt, Hugh Jackman or Eric Bana would look on a 46-inch television in your home! You’ll never head to a stadium again, watch all your favourite sports such as rugby league and soccer from the comfort of your lounge room in stunning colour and surround sound.

The 46″ (117cm) Z5500 Series BRAVIA LCD TV is truly an action-inspired LCD TV with innovative technologies and clever features incorporated that works synergistically together, elevating your viewing experience to a whole new level. Other benefits include Live Colour Creation and Bravia Engine 3, as well as an abundance of connectivity options.

Not sure what this all means? Check out Answers for the solution!

• What is the difference between LCD and Plasma TV’s?
• What are the differences between the different Bravia Series?
• Can I set up my PC to run on a Sony Bravia?

To enter, click here and follow the steps to win!

Kate
Community Manager

* Terms and Conditions

For Australian baseball fans, November is the best time of year!

The World Series is in full swing, the Claxton Shield commences this weekend in Australia and the summer season for junior and senior community-level club baseball has been in session for over a month.

The 2009 World Series sees a standoff between the powerhouses of the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees have a staggering 26 World Series titles to their credit and the Phillies are defending the title after winning their second ever World Series last year, the first being in 1980. Both are clubs with a long history in American Baseball, the Yankees were established in 1901 going through several relocations and name changes before becoming the New York Yankees in 1923. The Phillies have the distinction of being the oldest continuous club in North America with the same name and being affiliated with the same city, having being established in 1883.

The Yankees are currently leading the series 3 games to the Phillies 2, with Game 6 scheduled for this morning (Australian time). Who will win through to claim the rings this year?

Meanwhile, back in Australia, preparations are underway for the 2009 Claxton Shield. This is currently the highest level of competition available to Australian players, aside from the Baseball World Cup or the Olympic Games, seeing teams from 5 states (NSW, QLD, VIC, SA and WA) compete across the country right through until February. Games begin this weekend in Geelong and Sydney.

Community baseball clubs around the country are currently running competitions for both senior and junior players; most have competitions that actually run year-round. There’s nothing quite like a friendly game of ball on a warm summer afternoon. It may be worthwhile checking with the Australian Baseball Federation to see if there’s a club near you!

If you haven’t quite figured it out by now, I like baseball! I have been playing the game for close to ten years, spectating for even longer and am an avid supporter of the game at all levels. It is quite simply; to me at least, the best game out there!

What about you? Have you ever watched or played a game of baseball? Or maybe you have been thinking that it looks interesting but never really thought about it further?  Leave your thoughts below!

Kate
Community Manager

A big thank you to everyone who submitted a Halloween Yamster or Avatar image during the weekend outage, we loved them.

It was extremely hard to choose between them, so we decided to award all entrants 100 points each – so congratulations to both Lucien and QCY!

And without further ado, here are the winning entries:

Lucien

QCY

Thanks again for your patience during the outage

Kate
Community Manager