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.

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.

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

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 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 beginning of each day (AEST).  This means at 9am AEST on Friday, your points total will show as it was at 7:59pm PST on Thursday.

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!7 Answers page.  You’re also welcome to leave your comments here, on the blog.

Thanks, and we hope you like it!

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There has been a lot of interest and activity around our move to Yahoo!7 profiles.  A benefit of using one profile for your Yahoo!7 experience means you can now share your Answers activity with those you are connected to via your Yahoo!7 profile, even if they aren’t Answers users.

Sharing your updates will help you get better responses to your questions and will let show off your knowledge to your entire social network!

We have added two new ‘Updates’ features to Answers:

• one notifies your contacts each time you ask a question
• one notifies your contacts of each question you answer

Now, when you are at the “Preview your question” stage of asking a question you will be prompted to ‘Manage your updates’. Here you choose if you want to share your updates to your social connections.

By default updates will be set to ‘Don’t share my updates’ to keep your content private unless you choose otherwise.

To give you control over what and when you share, this option can be changed anytime you ask or answer a question.  You have full control over this setting from the ‘Edit my profile’ page too.

By not sharing your updates whatever you do on Answers will not appear on your Yahoo!7 profile.

When you ask or answer we offer a link to your profile to show you exactly who you are currently sharing your updates with.  Click the ‘Manage who sees your updates’ link to be taken to profiles which is the place where you can control who see all of your Yahoo!7 Updates.

Had enough of seeing this message?  Check the box and we promise it won’t bug you again.We’ve tried to make controlling your updates as simple as possible but, if you want more information about managing your Answers updates you can find it through these Help pages: http://help.yahoo.com/l/au/yahoo7/answers/updates/

If you are still unsure about how your profile works or how to change features on your Yahoo! profile, check out our sister-blog – www.yprofileblog.com – and this specific article that is addressed to Answers users.

We hope you like this new feature, we do!

Happy updating!
Yahoo!7 Answers Team

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• Better protection against online threats such as fraudulent sites and spyware
• Increased speed to help you browse the Web faster
• New tools that provide easier access to your favourite sites
• Built-in Yahoo!7 Homepage, Yahoo!7 Toolbar and Yahoo!7 Search

There are some great search features in the Yahoo!7 IE8 toolbar. Yahoo!7 Search Assist provides instant text suggestions to users so you can get further detail from your search.

Or you can customise it further and choose to search in Yahoo!7 videos, images or even on Answers, all from the toolbar.

Another nifty tool is the Answers button installed with the toolbar. When you’re logged in, you can click on the arrow then scroll through the suggestions. Options include going straight to Yahoo!7 Answers, going to the Ask a Question, Answer a Question or even to your own Q&As.

To experience all these goodies, download Yahoo!7 optimised version of Internet Explorer 8. Also, answer our question from the official IE8 account – How does internet safety impact your online browsing?

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The migration to the new Yahoo!7 profile platform is almost complete for Answers and we understand some of you are concerned about certain changes. Rest assured, as we are always working on improvements, your feedback is very important hence we would like to address some of the issues you have raised over the past weeks.

What if I want a different image for Answers?
Remember, you can change your profile image whenever you want. Feel free to post a different profile picture so you don’t feel like you are always displaying the same image. Also, don’t forget you can also use an avatar on Answers. We have many cool avatars that can be personalised to reflect your individuality (check them out here: http://au.avatars.yahoo.com). As mentioned before, for those of you who display an avatar on Answers, both avatar and nickname will continue to remain the same.

What about resizing my image?
You’ve also noticed images have to be cropped in your Yahoo!7 profile. If you’re worried about losing part of the image, why not choose one with a large background? This way, the square cropping required in your Yahoo!7 profile will have a minimal effect.

In other words, the same image I display on Answers will also appear in places like Flickr?
Your universal profile on Yahoo!7 is gradually being rolled out in phases, so there are currently a few properties (including Flickr, MyBlogLog, Messenger, etc.) that do not use profiles at this time. The profiles team is working closely with each of the other Yahoo!7 properties to create a smooth transition to the new profiles service. We know that you value your experiences on Yahoo!7 and want to make sure that the integrity of these sites (and your membership) is maintained, which is why this process has been done gradually instead of all at once.

Please continue to share your constructive feedback with us, as we know the only way for us to improve these services is with your help.

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Back in October, Yahoo!7 redesigned the core profile pages, giving them a fresh new look and feel, and additional functionality. These new profiles allow you to manage your image and establish connections with your friends and family, as well share information on what you’re up to on third-party sites like YouTube and Twitter.  All of this can be done right from your new profile on Yahoo!7 at http://profiles.yahoo.com

So how does this relate to Yahoo!7 Answers?  Currently, the image that displays for each user in Answers is brought in from each user’s 360 profile. In the coming weeks, Answers will start using profiles to display your image rather than 360.

Many of you use other Yahoo!7 services on a regular basis and we want to make it easier for you to manage your display image across all of our services.  By doing this, you’ll be able to update your profile image in one place and it will represent you wherever you go on the Yahoo!7 network.

We understand some of you opt to use a different image on Answers than what you use on other Yahoo!7 services. To confirm the image that we will soon be displaying on Answers we recommend that you go to http://profiles.yahoo.com now and activate your new profile. Once you’re there, you’ll be asked to confirm some information that you’ve previously shared with Yahoo!7 and select the image you’d like to share with the Answers community.

If you have never used other Yahoo!7 services and do not activate your profile, your image will show up as the “Grey Face”.

For those of you who display an avatar on Answers – don’t worry.  This won’t change.
Both avatars and nicknames will continue to remain the same on Answers.

We want to make the transition to your new profiles on Yahoo!7 as straight forward as possible for you. So go to http://profiles.yahoo.com now and let us know what you think of it!

Have more questions? Visit the Profiles blog or leave us a comment and let us know!

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For example, if you take a look at the Sunrise website, you’ll see a question from one of the Sunrise team. At the moment, Nelson Aspen, the Sunrise Hollywood reporter, is asking What celebrity should play YOU in a movie and why?

We’ve also got a weekly movies question in our Movies homepage. To celebrate Oscar week, we’ve got a resolved question asking Which movie has won the most Oscar awards?

If you look through Lifestyle categories such as Pets, Health or Horoscopes and Sports pages for Football, Cricket or NRL, you’ll find interesting questions relevant to the pages you’re looking at.

Even when you’re chatting to your friends you can catch up with Answers questions. In Messenger, there’s a plugin called Yahoo!7 Answers which regularly updates below your messenger list to give you new and interesting questions.

As a side note, if you want your own Answer badge on your blog or website, it’s really easy to do. Just check out this blog for details.

Finally, have you ever noticed on the Yahoo!7 frontpage that we’ve got a little ‘question of the day box’? Every day we upload an interesting open or closed question. Sometimes it’s a question related to an important news event, and sometimes it’s just something interesting that we thought you’d like to know about.

Do you have a question you think would be great to feature? Send us an email at y_answrs_team_au@yahoo.com.au or comment below!

Caitlin
Community Manager

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January is the month to make new plans and resolutions (as we did in this post) and we want to offer you some tips on how to make the most of your year at Yahoo!7 – there’s some really cool stuff that you can find here. Here you have some examples:

• Finance: don’t miss the latest economic news. 2009 is going to be a tough year, or so analysts say, so better stay tuned and see what happens!
• Mail & Messenger: How often has your new year’s resolution been to be a better friend and keep in touch more often? Well, you have no excuse: with mail and messenger you are just a few clicks away from anyone in the world, so drop them a line from time to time. That will make a smile appear on their faces for sure!  
• Profiles: launched a little time ago in 2008… but big sensation for 2009! – have you got one already? Profiles is the place where you can tell more about yourself, upload your pic, share your interests…
• Flickr: If you are a camera fan, we suppose you already have your account on Flickr (be it just to share your talent or your latest holidays)… but let me share with you the thing I like the most about Flickr: you can geo tag pics. That means you can specify the location in which the photo was taken and it will be added to that point on the map. With all these hot days, the perfect holiday treat is icecream so in the image above, I’ve searched for photos tagged with icecream in Sydney. Yum! And… of course there are millions of photos and videos you can explore. Even the magazines echo about the amount of pictures of Barack Obama!
• Tennis: With the Australian Open starting on Monday, we all want to be kept up-to-date with the latest tennis results. Yahoo!7′s tennis page will feature live scores, videos and photos of the action and all the latest news.
• Dating: Looking for love in the New Year? Yahoo!7 Dating offers you a choice of two services. Visit eharmony to find a match based on true compatibility that is designed to make dating more enjoyable. Or create your free online dating profile on Yahoo!7 Dating and search and browse through thousands of pictures and profiles of single Australian men and women to find your perfect date.
• Video: OK… not everything is going to be serious or “useful”. I mean sometimes, when you’re on the Internet you just want to “kill time”, right? Then, why don’t you check out games or videos?

Of course, we don’t want to leave Answers out: there’s a lot coming in 2009… Stay tuned!

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As the year draws to a close, we start to reflect on what we’ve achieved, what we’ve learnt and how far we’ve come. Yahoo!7 Search likes to take this reflection one step further. Their Top Searches of 2008 list gives us all a snapshot of exactly what captivated the nation this year.

Would you believe that the number one searched for term on Yahoo!7 is yet again Britney Spears? Yep, this once down and out pop princess has grabbed our attention for the second year in a row. Even on Answers she scored a fair amount of discussion. From how to dress up as her, to when she’s touring Australia and whether she should have custody of her kids, she featured highly in the Entertainment and Music category.

Britney wasn’t the only celebrity to make it to the top ten. The sad news of Heath Ledger’s death put him up at number two, and was a hotly debated topic on Answers as well. We were also fascinated with yummy mummies Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba and Katie Holmes. Even their offspring rated a mention in the celebrity hot list although it wasn’t all glamorous discussion – on Answers a popular discussion was Suri Cruise’s bottle and why she still has one.

It wasn’t all Hollywood gossip. Being an Olympic year, there were plenty of searches about Stephanie Rice, her ex Eamon Sullivan and of course, the superfish of the pool Michael Phelps. On Answers, the popular Olympics category was overun with questions about the rules of various sports, the Australian colours and even how to get into the Olympics in coming years.

The Global Economic Downturn was also a big search term during the year, and is something that is set to continue well into 2009. On Answers, there have been many questions about whether people’s lives have been affected, why the Australian dollar is falling and what it will mean for house prices.

To see the full list of Yahoo!7 Top 2008 Searches, click here. What notable events or people in 2008 have piqued your interest this year?

Caitlin
Community Manager

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We all enjoy connecting and communicating with friends and peers. Answers empowers you to gain experiential knowledge from the community but while it’s great for research and problem solving, sometimes when the urge to connect, chat or canvas opinion strikes, other parts of Yahoo!7 are a far better fit.

First there is Yahoo!7 Mail, which we’re all familiar with. If a person has turned on his communication settings on Answers, then you can also contact him by email. Messenger is also a great tool to connect live with your friends 24/7. There’s also Yahoo!7 Groups, with thousands of subject areas to choose from.

If you’re into polling there is also another Yahoo!7 destination site you might want to try. Bix.com is a place to “create, enter, and judge.” You’ll find contests for anything from top 10 cutest dogs to all time greatest Superhero.

The next time you want to find out what is the best sand structure or the most annoying celebrity why not check out Bix.com for yourself and put your creative skills to the test in a friendly face-off.

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