Yahoo!7 Answers Australia

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 in between!  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^th GMT!

If that isn’t enough… we’ll also be rewarding the Best Answer for Yahoo!7 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 AUSTRALIA.

The Winner

We’ll be announcing the Best Answer and competition winner on Tuesday July 13th 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 and Twitter pages.   Follow us on Twitter or ‘Like’ us on Facebook and you’ll get the updates immediately.

To enter, head to Yahoo!7 Answers and leave your question for David – please don’t leave your question in the comments below.

Happy answering and Good Luck!

– Yahoo!7 Answers Team

Photo by Getty

What a day it’s been!

Julia Gillard made history today, being sworn in as Australia’s 27th and first female Prime Minister. She was elected unopposed after Kevin Rudd stepped aside, ahead of the expected vote in caucus this morning to decide the leadership of the Labor Party and ultimately, our nation.

We are well used to Julia as our Deputy Prime Minister, but being in the top job is a little bit different:

• What sort of Prime Minister will Julia Gillard be and why?

And what about the Labor Party itself… is there division within the ranks? Will they be able to hold it together until the next election?

• What are your thoughts on the Labor Party leadership change and where do you see them in the future?

Two things we do know for sure, there will be a general election within the next year and all eyes will be on our new PM to see how effectively she can lead our country and her party through it.

Be sure to check out Yahoo!7 News for all the latest coverage!

Kate
Community Manager

Did you know that you can set your allegiance for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Yahoo!7 Mail? Even better, you can share it with all your friends across Yahoo!7 and Facebook!

How does it work?

Tasla from the Yahoo!7 Mail Team, has put together a step-by-step tutorial:

“…you will see a flag icon in the status area – the flag is based on the regional version and language of Yahoo! Mail that you use – If you have a Yahoo!7 Mail account, you will see the Australian flag.

By clicking on the flag, Yahoo!7 Mail will auto-fill your status message with a short phrase of support for that country.”

To read the rest of the tutorial, head on over to the Yahoo!7 Mail & Messenger Blog for further details.

The Yahoo!7 Lifestyle Team is asking the following question on Yahoo!7 Answers:

• What methods are you using to stay awake to watch the World Cup?

Have you been staying up late or getting up early to catch the games? Leave a comment on the question above or leave a comment below!

Kate
Community Manager

We are about to blow out the candles and celebrate like we would have if NSW had won this year’s State of Origin – because exactly four years ago, Yahoo!7 Answers was born!

The best thing about our anniversary is that, since our beginnings as a small site with big aspirations, we have had amazing achievements. Not only did we recently receive our 1 billionth answer, but we have formed a strong community of users who share their knowledge and experience. For that reason, we want to thank all the people of different ages, countries and opinions who have made this possible: thank you for your contributions!

We know it’s not all peaches and cream, and we are aware that there is always room for improvement. The Yahoo!7 Answers homepage has undergone some important changes and we have recently added a Facebook integration that allows you to share your answers with your friends in that social network, but there is still a long way to go. What do you think?

• What changes would you like to see on Yahoo!7 Answers?

Anniversaries are thoughtful moments, ideal for reflecting upon our mistakes and growing up in every aspect of our lives. They are also a good reason to celebrate and remember the past, so we want to know:

• What has been your best experience on Yahoo!7 Answers?

I’d have made a cake, but I’m a rather messy cook – check out the cakes I made for the Yahoo!7 Mail & Messenger celebrations last year to see why.

Celebrate our birthday with us and (leaving modesty aside) don’t forget to leave your messages of congratulations here!

Kate
Community Manager

UPDATE: 15th June. All issues below are now fixed. Thanks for  your patience on this!

Our latest release has unfortunately released a few bugs into the system which we are working to fix as soon as possible.

So what’s not working?

• Extending questions:  When you extend a question the updated number of days until expiry is not reflected on your question.  It remains at the same number of days.  Don’t worry, the question has been extended and will stay open for the extended duration…. it just doesn’t show the correct number on the question page.  As an impact of this, you may see open questions which say `Question period ended`.  This is purely where the number of days counter has hit zero but the question has been extended.

• Mails are not being sent when you receive a new answer to your question.  You will still receive other emails, such as when your contacts ask questions.

• Our External API is not currently working.  If you make use of this tool on your website you may want to join this Yahoo! Developer Group to keep up with the latest information on this:  http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ydn-answers/

We’re working hard to get these outstanding issues resolved and will update this post when we iron out the bugs…

-Yahoo! Answers Team

Starting on Thursday, you will 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.

At this very moment, the best football (soccer) players from all over the world are making their way to sunny South Africa to compete for the prize of all prizes. All eyes will turn to the Rainbow Nation to see if the numerous critics and doubters were right after all: They don’t believe the country is ready to host the greatest show on earth. Well, the time for words and debate is over, let the action begin and we’ll find out for ourselves!

Behind all the exciting games and magnificent stadia we will be seeing on our screens and the long hours we will be spending encouraging our team on to at least one more win, there is a fascinating country extending well beyond what will be shown.

Don’t worry, this is not a history class, nor a geography test about South Africa.  It is just a quick introduction to some facts you may find interesting (like the fact that Kruger National Park is almost the same size as Holland). Hopefully what follows will help add context and flavour to a whole month of football and activities that will happen in Answers.

The Rainbow Nation

South Africans often describe themselves as the Rainbow Nation due to their wide ranging diversity in people and cultural groups. South Africa has a population of 45 million people speaking 11 official languages, with Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans being the most common home languages (English is the fifth most common home language, but is understood by most people as, primarily for economic and political reasons, it is the lingua franca).

The best known and biggest cultural group in South Africa is the Zulus. They proudly defend and practice their own traditions, and became a very important force against the British army in the late 19^th Century.

Unusually, the country has three capital cities: Cape Town (Legislative), Pretoria (Administrative), and Bloemfontein (Judicial).

The South African flag as we know it today was adopted on Liberty Day, April 27^th 1994 (during the first democratic elections after the abolishment of apartheid.

Sport

Sport in South Africa is almost a national religion! Children actively engage in all types of sport from a very young age and inevitably dream of emulating their heroes in football, rugby, cricket and just about every other sport you can think of.

Since the first democratic elections were celebrated in 1994, South Africa has hosted a variety of international sporting tournaments: The Rugby World cup in 1995 (which they won), Football’s African Cup of Nations in 1996 (which they won), and the Cricket World Cup in 2003. The country has also hosted auto racing’s A1 Grand Prix since 2006.

South Africa has always been a formidable competitor in Rugby Union. The national team, the Springboks, have won the Rugby World Cup on two occasions: 1995 and 2007.

Bafana Bafana (as the South African football team are known, meaning “The Boys”) have the hopes of a nation riding on their shoulders. The South African Football Association (SAFA) was banned from all international football events from 1974 till 1992, so winning the African Cup of Nations in 1996 was a significant triumph. Since then Bafana Bafana have proven somewhat inconsistent, slaying giants one moment and losing dismally to underdogs the next. So anything could happen in June/July 2010!

Famous South Africans

You may know of several other famous South Africans, but here we offer a small list of some of the names that have conquered the world, and you may be surprised by some of them:

• J.R.R. Tolkien, writer and author of “Lord of the Rings”.
• J.M. Coetzee, writer and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Nelson Mandela, revolutionary leader, first black president and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
• Charlize Theron, the first South African actress to win an Oscar.
• Christian Barnard, the doctor who realised the first ever heart transplant.
• Jody Sheckter, Formula 1 champion in 1979.
• Gary Player, World Golf Hall of Famer and winner of 9 major tournaments
• Desmond Tutu, Archbishop and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984
• Hugh Masekela, Grammy Award nominated musician best known as a trumpeter

As we mentioned, this is just a small introduction to South Africa, and the beginning of a whole month of activities that we have prepared for the Answers Community around the FIFA World Cup.  Stay tuned, and you will find yourself in the middle of a number of contests, activities and rewards that we’ve set up for you along the way.

“May the best team win!”

Photo by ~crystalina~.

Apologies to all, I’ve been a bit sick these past few weeks, but I’m now on the mend. Stay tuned for some great blog posts, including a chance for you to be featured on this blog!

Kate
Community Manager

Currently we offer the option to share your question or answer with your wider Yahoo! contacts through Yahoo! Updates on the ‘Preview your question/answer’ pages.  In relation to this feature we have some good news and some bad news…

The Good News

Over the next week we’re going to be improving the visual presentation of the Updates feature and giving you easier control over what you share and where.

This is how it will look once the Yamster has finished his polishing:

With this lighter design, the change will make it easier to see whether you are currently sharing and let you update this quickly and more simply on a question-by-question or answer-by-answer basis.  You can also quickly choose whether to share with everyone or your contacts only by using the arrow to the right of the tickbox.

Don’t worry about questions showing up against your wishes – if you’ve switched sharing off in the past, it will continue to be switched off.  Otherwise you can choose your setting when you ask  or answer for the first time after we’ve launched this version of Y! updates.

The Bad News

The bad news is that to do this work we need to switch off Updates for the next few days.  This means your questions or answers won’t be shared as Updates to your Yahoo! contacts, and you will not see the Yahoo! Updates box on the Preview your Question page.

We know it’s just a small change but it is one we anticipate will simplify when and how you share your Answers knowledge… and watch this space for more developments around sharing your knowledge!

–Yahoo! Answers Team