Yahoo!7 Answers Blog Australia

Following our changes to the Search experience on Answers last week we received a lot of feedback from you, the community, around the changes we had made.

Advanced search changes

We’ve reacted to your feedback to make changes that now allow you to add parameters to the URL, which will enable you to sort the search results to your preference.  In order to do this, here are the parameters you would need to add:

• &orderby=+date (to sort by most recent)
• &orderby=-date (to sort by oldest)

For example a search for `dogs` gives this URL: http://au.answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?p=dogs

If you want to sort search results by the most recent, simply add `&orderby=+date` to the end of the URL:  http://au.answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?p=dogs&orderby=+date

We will look to add these filters within the page itself over the coming months.

In addition, we have noticed that search terms within quotation marks (“ and “) were returning no results.  A few code tweaks later and hey presto – results have now returned!

Further changes

Last but not least, we’ve also taken this opportunity to fix some other bugs on the site:

• For Internet Explorer users we’ve fixed the layout issue on the Ask/Answer/Discover banner.
• We have also made changes to content deletion.  Previously, when you deleted your question or answer, it was still showing in the public view of your profile page.  From now on when you delete a question or answer, it will be entirely removed from your public profile page

Keep the feedback coming!

As they say, all good things must come to an end. After 18 months of writing blogs and being your community manager, I’m moving onto other projects here at Yahoo!7. However never fear, I have a very able replacement who will be communicating with you in the future.

I’d like to introduce you to Kate – she’s very experienced here at Yahoo!7 and has been working on products such as Messenger and Mail among others. She’s really excited about working with such an active community and I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading her blogs and seeing what other things she has in store.

So welcome Kate by posting a comment on the blog or emailing y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au

And from me, as the von Trapps so lyrically put it – So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodnight!

Caitlin
Community Manager

Great news! Since we launched Yahoo!7 Answers, over 1 billion questions and answers have been posted from across the world. It’s a huge number but the way we see it,  it’s a true testimony of how great of a community-driven knowledge website Answers is.

Did you know that:

• The Answers community counts over 179 million users. That’s more than half the population in the United States!
• Answers is available in 26 markets and is translated in 12 languages. From English to Japanese, we’ve got you covered!
• Every day, an average  of 15 million users visit the site. That’s how many people visit Disneyland every year!

We thank all of you for helping us reach these landmark numbers.

As we continue to make Answers the biggest and best source to find and share information, we value  your feedback and comments, so please keep in touch with us through the blog .

How can we improve your experience on Answers?

Yahoo!7 Answers Team

We had our pub trivia evening last night and it was a great event enjoyed by all. We indulged in the tasty delights of the Rag & Famish kitchen (and a few refreshing bevies) before getting stuck into the real fun of the night – trivia.

We felt compelled to obey the instructions on our limited edition beer coasters and put away our iPhones & blackberries for the evening, focusing only on our intellect for the Answers.

We got off to a good start – we knew the name of Martin Crane’s dog in Frasier and we worked out that a picture of a woman with a lion tattoo on the back of her neck was Mena Suvari from American Beauty. We totally rocked the questions about 90s fads, such as what was the Japanese toy that looked like an egg? and what was the furry toy that you train to do things such as speak English?

However there were a few topics that we were particularly lacking in expertise. Did you know that Russell Crowe’s character in Gladiators was called Maximus Decimus Meridius? We didn’t! We also didn’t know that the Volga River is the longest in Europe (who said the Danube??!) and we didn’t know that the city in the famous expression ‘See this city and then die’ was referring to Naples.

Despite these mistakes, we came a respectable fourth. We had a great time distributing our coasters and meeting the community members. Everyone who attended received some of our limited edition coasters and a lovely Yahoo! hat.

We got some great feedback but for those of you who couldn’t make it, what would you have liked to ask us or tell us to help make your Answers experience better? We’ll send some Yahoo!7 Answers coasters to the best 3 suggestions!

Caitlin
Community Manager

As you’re a Yahoo!7 Answers regular, you’re probably one of those people who love learning new things and testing your random knowledge. So if you’re anything like us, you love a good old pub trivia night. What could be better? Jugs of beers, companionship and some curly questions like who was the first man on Mount Everest’s peak? and who came up with the arrangement of numbers and symbols on a computer keyboard?

So if you’re in Sydney, we’re inviting you to come and play pub trivia with us, the Yahoo!7 Answers team. We will be at the Rag & Famish hotel in North Sydney next Tuesday night 24th March to see if we’ve learnt anything from years of working at Answers.

As an additional bonus, we’ll be giving away our limited edition Yahoo!7 Answers beer coasters as well.

So come and join our team or bring some mates and compete against us. Imagine the kudos of beating the Answers team!  We’ll be in purple Yahoo! caps, not unlike these ones our avatars are wearing!

Details: 7:30pm Tuesday 24th March 2009
Rag & Famish Hotel
199 Miller Street
North Sydney NSW 2060

Hope to see you there!

Caitlin & Alana

Three years ago when Answers launched, Australians were given a gift – the gift of knowledge. As an Australian, you and over two million of your closest friends have asked and answered each other’s questions on Yahoo!7 Answers making it the leading question and answer site on the web!

To celebrate, we have asked a question about how Answers has positively impacted your life and are looking forward to reading your inspirational stories.  We know that we have fans from other countries, so please do let us know if you are Australian!

Singing…..Happy Birthday to us,
Happy Birthday to us,
Happy Birthday Dear Yahoo!7 Answers…
Happy Birthday to us!!

Alana – Product Manager
Caitlin – Community Manager

Hey everyone,

2008 has been a fantastic year on Answers and we, the Answers team, are very impressed by the vast amounts of knowledge, hidden know-how and out-of-the ordinary experiences you all have shared.

To thank you for your great contributions and for participating in making Answers what it is today – one of the best places to ask and answer questions on the web – we wanted to give you a little something.

We’ve compiled the very first Yahoo!7 Answers Guide to Everything. Get it here:

In it, you’ll find some of the best questions and answers we’ve seen on the site in 2008. We’ve also included the highlights of the year, from Featured Users to awards Answers has won.

We hope you enjoy it and want to wish you a very Merry green Christmas on Answers and a Happy New Year from the whole Yahoo!7 Answers team.

Recently we blogged about the wonder of Answers, and different people from the global Answers team had their say on what makes the site so great to them. In part two we continue with input from Answers team members in Australia, France, UK and more…

Caitlin Yahoo!7 Australia Answers team on having the bottle to ask…

Answers is useful for those questions that everyone ponders but no one seems to know the answer to. I’ve found out things as diverse as why wine bottles have different shapes, what the name of that Italian quiz show I really like is and why car manufacturers swap their badges.

Although the questions all had me stumped, to other people they were easy and they responded with brilliant answers in a matter of minutes. This leads to why I like answering questions. I love the give and take – I know nothing about cars but I’m really good at giving relationship advice and I know all the tricks to travelling on a budget. Answers reminds me that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. We all have our own unique knowledge and Answers is the vessel that helps us share these resources.

Marilyn Yahoo! Answers USA on sharing her musical knowledge…

Answers rocks because not only can you get answers but you can actually give answers. I think of myself as a person with great knowledge in a particular show or ‘name that tune.’ So I am constantly trying to share what I know with other users. It’s a great feeling and you can’t find anything else like it on the internet.

Douglas Yahoo! Answers France team on the simplicity of one site…

Since Answers’ launch, I am amazed by the manner in which it has reversed the way we look for knowledge. Before Answers, we had to go around the web, look for pieces of info and put it all together in the right order to make it understandable. Since then, Answers has filled a gap on the web with a place where knowledge reaches you from people willing to share and structure it for you. This represents the true power of human-web collaboration for me.

Frank Yahoo! Answers Global Product Manager on web search tricks…

Loads of people struggle to find what they are looking for through web search or on online encyclopaedias, be it because they are not that experienced with using web search or just due to having specific needs.

Recently I struggled to find answers to specific questions around the UK tax system and although you will find a wealth of information through web search it’s very hard to be sure that you interpret the information in a way to know you have found the right answer to your specific case. Answers helped me achieve this.

Juliette Yahoo! Answers Product Operations on the future of search…

I’ve always been quietly curious about what other people search for. But not only can searching become painful and very lengthy when you’re after one specific piece of information, but you can also get so easily distracted from your initial query. The former has to do with the technicalities of keywords and web crawling, the latter relates to the depth of information you can find online: limitless.

Answers is the answer to this vicious circle: the information is easily retrievable and well structured to enable anyone, not only techy people, to find it. And it’s handy: you’ve got everything you need in one place, from finance to food, photography to physics. For me, Answers has the potential to become the next generation of search engines. And who knows, one day people might say “just Answers-it on the internet” instead of, well, you know what…

This is the second in a two-part series of blog posts on our thought on Answers. Read the first post here. But the site would be nothing without you, the Answers community. Why not have your say about what you enjoy most on Answers by leaving a comment below. We’re all ears!

We all rely on our friends and relatives to help solve everyday problems, but sometimes they’re not around to help you out or haven’t found themselves in your particular conundrum. And that’s where Answers comes in: somewhere online where you can ask how-to and why-is-it questions, to get answers from the millions of people out there!

We know you’ve all experienced the wonder of Answers, that glow you get from getting a really great solution to your current headache, but occasionally we, the Answers team, come across questions asking why we should even share knowledge on Answers at all? People ask: what’s the point?

So we thought for once, instead of asking you why you think Answers is a great place to share and exchange knowledge, we’d flip the script. We’ve asked various members of the global Answers team, from those who work with the community to those who build and maintain the site, what they think is so great about participating on Answers and what their favourite moments have been.

Here is what they said:

Martin Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team on the power of a bus…

Since Answers launched the UK and Ireland, we’ve loved watching the community grow. Seeing people get a great answer and walk away with a problem solved, thanks to Answers, is a wonderful thing. But nothing compares to literally being there when a first-time participant just… ‘gets it.’

During 2006, we took Answers on the road, finding experts and enthusiasts wherever they might be: food events, flower shows or university campuses. As we took them through asking a question, the responses varied. But there was always a common moment, that made the whole trip worthwhile, when a great answer appeared. I could compare it to a “Eureka” moment, was like a metaphorical light bulb switched on above their head, but it was deeper than that. Suddenly to them, like it did to millions of other people worldwide, Answers really made sense.

Silvia Yahoo! Spain Answers team on cooking up great ideas…

I really love cooking and in Answers I find a place to exchange knowledge related to food. I like to try new things, especially from places I’ve never been to. Answers is a really good place to find recipes and ask for techniques. You can check out the results of the answers provided by the community here. I also like to help people who are learning to cook with simple recipes and tips.

Christian Yahoo! Germany Answers team on expanding his knowledge circle…

Profiting from others’ experiences is great. Each of us relies on the advice of our circle of friends. Yet on Answers, you can benefit from many more people and their experiences and knowledge – and you also can gain the friendship of others. Even if I still rely on my friends, the Answers community has helped me with so many things I could never have found out with regular web search, I’ve lost count.

Fionna Yahoo! Canada Answers team on power of Answers…

To me, Yahoo! Answers *is* the Internet. The Internet is an infinite and instant source of interactive information … and so is Yahoo! Answers. It’s a vast community of people using the most powerful search engine of all — their own brains — to help each other. Yahoo! Answers perfectly encapsulates all the power and possibilities of the entire Web in one place.

Mark Yahoo! Answers Global Product Operations on making a difference to someone…

Like most people, thoughts regularly pop into my head on subjects that I want to know the answer to.  I could spend my time researching to find out… but prefer instead to take the old-fashioned (and lazy!) approach of asking people directly.  For this, Answers is unbeatable.

But, in my eyes, the thing that really makes Answers great and continues to amaze me is that every second of every day people around the world are busy using Answers to find information in exactly the same manner. Every contribution we make can make a difference to someone else in another part of the globe.

This is the first in a two-part series of blog posts on our thoughts on Answers, but the site would be nothing without you, the Answers community. Why not have your say about what you enjoy most on Answers by leaving a comment below. We’re all ears!

Once again, we would like to thank you for your contribution and congratulate you for the great value that comes with the knowledge you have shared on the site.

This time your contributions have been noticed by PC World who have included Yahoo! Answers in their list of the most useful and interesting sites on the net as one of their great how-to sites!

PC World acclaim Yahoo! Answers as “one of the best examples of community participation on the Net” and rate you all as “informed members of the community.” Of course, this is something we have known for a long time and are pleased the rest of the world is coming to realise it too!

The full article is available to read from here.

We hope you feel as proud as we do!

Caitlin
Community Manager