We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve created a brand new mobile site and it’s ready for you to use. Everything you love about Yahoo! Answers is now optimized for on-the-go availability.

Will it work on my phone?

The new mobile-optimized version of Yahoo! Answers makes it easy for you to keep track of points, open questions, and stay on top of what people are asking wherever and whenever the mood grabs you. Our new mobile site will work with most phones but you’ll see it at its very best on the newest phones, such as iPhone, Android and the latest Blackberrys.

See it in action

We’ve put together this short video, to show you why we’re so excited…

What does it do?

With Yahoo! Answers optimized for mobile, you can:

• Ask, Answer, and Discover questions as you would on the PC
• Vote and select a best answer
• Easily access your profile, points, and open questions to check on your activity
• Check out new open questions being asked every second
• Rack up more points when you’re out and about

We hope you’re as excited about the mobile version of Yahoo! Answers as we are. Give it a try today!

My Saved Search is a great solution that helps you quickly find new questions on these specialist subjects.

To assist you in finding these questions we’ve now launched a new email notification to alert you when new questions arise from your saved searches…

The Saved Search email

We’d like to introduce the new Saved Search email.

By opting in to receive the Saved Search email we will send a daily update whenever new questions meet your search criteria.  You can opt-in to the receive the email from the Preferences – Privacy and Communications page.

Where there are questions available we’ll send through up to three questions for each search you’ve saved.  By clicking through to your Saved Search on that subject you will continue to see the complete list of questions which is updated in real time.

My Saved Search

If you weren’t previously aware of My Saved Search, you may not be aware that you can easily earn 20 points by saving just three searches. Here is an overview of how the process works.

How to save your search

You can save your search from the following areas:

• The Search homepage
• Advanced Search page
• My Saved Search page

What can you do with My Saved Search?

From the My Saved Search page, you can now:

• Save up to 10 searches.  The main pane displays the selected search in real time.  The last sorting option you use is saved the next time you log in.
• Edit your searches to keep them up-to-date.
• Delete your searches when you no longer need them.
• Drag and drop to arrange your Saved Searches to get the most used ones at the top of the list.
• Manage these searches from the new Saved Search page by editing or deleting.
• Get your Saved Searches delivered as a daily digest email
• Have the Yahoo! Trending Topic of the day included in your search results.  You’ll notice one search already there which you didn’t search for.  We’ve given you a `trending search` to start.  This is a keyword based on what is trending from Yahoo! Search.  It changes on a daily basis depending on what people are talking about on the web.  The trending search can be deleted to give you full control of the 10 searches you save.  However, beware that once you delete the trending search it will be removed forever.

As soon as you have 3 Saved Searches on your Saved Search page we will give you 20 points!  However, this will only be awarded once.

So go ahead – let us do the legwork in finding questions to answer!

Have more questions?  Let us know. 

Check out this testimonial from our top contributor in the Travel > Philippines category – Lakwatsa (a very apt travel nickname btw, hehehe):

(Photo by BoyPLakwatsa)

I have been on Yahoo! Answers for over three years contributing primarily on the Travel > Asia Pacific > Philippines category, asking for tips on places I want to go to, but most of the time sharing personal travel experience when questions on places I have been to are asked.

When I seek information, I sometimes get disappointed when I get responses based solely on internet search results. I figure Netizens don’t need to be fed travel tips based on hotel and resort websites because presumably we all know how to access these information.  For the same reason, I find that askers appreciate it more when I share tips based on my personal travel experience.

So as not to re-type the same answers, I created my own travel blog on places in the Philippines that I have visited. This is a step forward to my avowed mission to help in the best way in the Yahoo! Answers category I am most heavily involved with.  As an active YAPper (that is how regulars in this section are called), I also made an entry within my travel blog suggesting to my readers that should they have travel questions, they can go to Yahoo! Answers thru the link I provided here:

http://boyplakwatsa.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/travel-tips-on-yahoo-answers/

I think that travelers will find Yahoo! Answers (particularly the Travel category) even more useful and reliable when more and more travel bloggers participate in this section.  I personally invite travel bloggers to get started on Answers or Yahoo! can invite them to come in as knowledge partners.  It can only be good for Yahoo! Answers and to those who seek real answers from real people.

It’s amazing how Lakwatsa is helping so many people by simply sharing in Answers and in his blog the details of his travels across the country.  If you’ve long been bitten by the travel bug and have lots to share as well, here’s your chance to do so.  This August, we’re doing a special initiative in the Travel category where we invite you to share your fondest memories of landscapes, cityscapes, seascapes and even skyscapes through your travel stories and anecdotes.

Spread over four weeks, with each week catering to one particular theme, this initiative will showcase the best holiday destinations and the most awesome travel stories that come from you!  So start working on that travelogue of yours and include details like places to stay, things to see, what food to eat there, best shopping deals and the like. And don’t forget to tell us why it is among your favorite holiday destinations! We’ll be awarding 50 bonus points for the best story each week!

Not only that, we invite you to share your favorite photograph of the vacation on Flickr!  If you don’t have an account yet, simply go to Flickr.com and using your Yahoo! account, create a new Flickr account.  We encourage you to upload your travel photos on Flickr and then join the following groups where you can share to the world these photos your memories captured in pictures:

Landscape group

http://www.flickr.com/groups/100naturallandscapes/

Flickr photo by coolnumber9

Cityscape group

http://www.flickr.com/groups/26328425@N00/

Flickr photo by The 2-Belo

Seascape group

http://www.flickr.com/groups/seascape/

Flickr photo by -Gep-

Skyscape group

http://www.flickr.com/groups/98509261@N00/

Flickr photo by rob surreal

Once you post your picture there, remember to leave us a comment with the Flickr link on the blog, or add the link in your answer.  At the end of four weeks, your story and photograph could be featured on our blog or even be featured on the Yahoo! Front Page!

This week’s question is about dreamy landscapes. Meadows full of flowers and green grass, a winding river, a roaring waterfall, awe-inspiring mountains, amazing rice fields or maybe endless deserts – what landscape inspired you the most and made for an unforgettable holiday? What was your most picturesque and pleasant holiday in the countryside?

Share your travel stories now and let’s have fun sharing and learning from each other’s travel experiences.

The NEW Answers search page

Let’s take you through some of the changes you’ll see:

1. We’ve now added the ability to sort results by relevance, by newest/oldest, and by fewest/most answers directly to the top of your results. You can continue to use the left hand navigation to customize your search and we’ve made some amends to these drop-downs.\
2. Added filtering by `Tied questions` to the Question Status dropdown
3. Added a new dropdown to filter by `Number of Answers`
4. Changed the time options available in the Date Submitted dropdown to give you a greater range of options and to include a filter for the `last 24 hours`
5. Next to the Search Answers button you’ll notice we’ve re-added `Advanced Search` so let’s take a deeper look at that next…

Advanced Search

Advanced Search is back and gives you even more options for customizing your search.

Advanced Search allows you to filter your search using specific parameters in order for you to receive results that are more accurate. These filters are saved and added to your saved searches.

You can filter your search by using the following:

• Keyword match in: All Q&A, Questions or Best Answers.
• Category
• Location: All English questions or Philippines questions only.
• Question Status: Open Questions, Questions in Voting, Tied Questions or Resolved Questions
• Number of Answers
• Date Submitted

You can enter certain Boolean search terms in `Keywords`. These are: AND, ANDNOT, AND, OR. Not sure about Boolean? Then use the `All these words`, `any of these words`, `exact phrase` or `don’t include these words` boxes and we’ll insert the Boolean commands for you.

My Saved Searches

Many of you make use of the `Saved Search` option to help you quickly find content around your specialist subjects. We’ve now enhanced this feature so from the new My Saved Search page you can now:

• Save up to 10 searches. The main pane displays the selected search in real time. The last sorting option you use is saved the next time you log in.
• Edit your searches to keep them up-to-date
• Delete your searches when you no longer need them
• Drag and drop to arrange your Saved Searches to get the most used ones at the top of the list.
• Manage these searches from the new Saved Search page by editing or deleting
• Get your Saved Searches delivered as a daily digest email (see below)
• Have the Yahoo! Trending Topic of the day included in your search results. You’ll notice one search already there which you didn’t search for. We’ve given you a `trending search` to start. This is a keyword based on what is trending from Yahoo! Search. It changes on a daily basis depending on what people are talking about on the web. The trending search can be deleted to give you full control of the 10 searches you save. However, beware that once you delete the trending search it will be removed forever.

All your old saved searches will be migrated to the new My Saved Search so you might have 2 searches waiting for you.

To give you an incentive to test this feature out – as soon as you have 3 Saved Searches on your Saved Search page we will give you 20 points! However, this will only be awarded once.

How do I save my search?

You can save your search from the following areas:

• The Search homepage
• Advanced Search page
• My Saved Search page

Digest Email

We’ll soon be launching a new Digest Email that will send you an email once a day containing the top 3 questions from each of your Saved Searches. The top 3 questions are sorted by the settings you save on your My Saved Searches page, so if you only want ‘in voting’ questions then those are the questions that will be delivered to you. This will make your Answers experience more efficient since questions will be sent directly to your inbox!

For now, tick the box if you want to receive these emails and we’ll start sending out in the next few days.

We’ve left the decision on whether you want to receive this email to you. You can opt in to this email by checking the box at the bottom of the Advanced Search page or from you’re the Privacy and Communication tab on the `Edit My Preferences` page.

For those of you who bookmark your searches – we’ve respected this and it will still work. But why not use Saved Search instead of Bookmarks and get the daily email as well as the bonus points?

We’d love to hear your feedback on the new features to search. Leave us a comment here on the blog or on the feedback thread on the Suggestion board. We trust you will find the new Search experience to be a useful addition to your Answers experience!

FACEBOOK

Be a fan of our official Facebook fan page!  To join our friends on Facebook, you just need to follow these steps:

1. Log in or sign up on Facebook.
2. Go on our Facebook fan page.
3. Once you’re on the official fan page, just click on the button “I like” available at the top to become one of our fans
4. Well done, you’re now one of our Facebook friends!

Another way of adding us is to look for “Yahoo! Philippines Answers” in the search bar, then click on the link to go directly to our fan page.

We look forward to sharing great content and chatting with you in the fan page.  Watch out for the latest blog updates, open and resolved questions from the team, partners and even some from the community.  Check out the page regularly because we have some really cool surprises that we’ll be announcing in the fan page so watch out for it!

TWITTER

Aside from Facebook, if you’re a Tweep then you definitely have to follow us on Twitter!  Our Twitter account is http://twitter.com/YahooAnswersPH.

We tweet a lot of the good stuff you find on Answers (blog updates, cool, quirky and always interesting questions and answers) and we encourage you to retweet any of our tweets that you think your followers would like to know as well.

Once you’ve followed, liked and connected with us in Facebook and Twitter, please feel free to tell your friends about it.  And don’t forget to share your thoughts about it below in the comments.  Thanks!

While these changes have taken place, many of you have had questions about where we have relocated your favorite features, and what changes lie ahead. Below you’ll find some of the most commonly asked questions and their answers.

Q: Previously, I could click on “My Profile” to go straight to my profile page. This link is gone—how do I get to this page now?

A: To easily access your profile page, you can either click on your name next to the “Hello” message, or, click on the “My Activity” tab to jump straight to your profile.

Q: Below my name there’s now an “invite your friends” link—what does this do?”

A: Clicking on the “Invite your friends” link allows you to easily invite any of your friends to join you on Yahoo! Answers.  From this page, you can easily enter in the email addresses of your family and friend and encourage them to join you on Answers—that way if you’ve recently asked a question on Answers and think your Lola may know the Answer but know she’s not on Answers, you can easily get her on board, and, get her to answer your question!

Please note that if you’re a Level 1 member, instead of seeing “invite your friends” you’ll instead see a link reading, “What are points and levels?,” encouraging you to learn more about Answers. For members who are level 2 and higher, you’ll be seeing this link added in under the “About” tab in the near future.

Q: How do I see my suggested questions?

A: If you have suggested questions, they’ll show up on your homepage as they did before. Currently, we don’t have a message in place that tells you “there are no suggested questions available at this time” but we’re looking to add this back in the near future.

Q: How do I see my recent activity details?

A: To see your recent activity details, just click on the “My Activity” tab—from here, you can see your activity summary, your activity details, as well as your questions, answers, starred questions and your watchlist.

Also from this page, you can easily click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to edit the content found within your Answers profile, or, if you’re elsewhere on the Answers site, just hover back on the “My Activity” tab and click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to be taken to the same edit screen.

Q: Now that you’ve changed the look and feel of Answers, what’s next?

A: We always have a few tricks up our sleeve, so be on the lookout for new things heading your way. In the meantime, we still love hearing your thoughts about the new homepage and the changes to search, so please keep the constructive feedback coming!

If you have additional “how-to” questions about the new homepage or search, or, just want to tell us what you think, please leave a comment below!

Just when we thought our community couldn’t grow any faster, a mere two months later, we’ve tackled the 200 million-worldwide visitor mark!

When you break it down, on average, that’s:

• 350,000 new  visitors a day
• 243 new visitors a minute

So here’s a big thanks to you, the Answers community for spreading the word about Answers, and sharing with your friends, family, and anyone you meet on the internet about what you’ve learned (and what you want to learn!) on Answers

At this rate, we’ll hit 300 million in no time!

Recently, many of you wrote to us about unresolved questions and questions that are in tie-breaker status on the site.  The best way to make sure no question remains undecided, is to resolve it either by picking a best answer, or putting it up for voting.  Here is an overview of how the voting process works

Vote as best answer

When a question is asked, it initially remains open for 4 days, but it can be extended at any time to remain open for a total of 8 days.

• If two or more answers are collected, you can either pick the best answer or let the community vote to choose the best answer. If you take no action to resolve the question, the answers are automatically put to a vote by the community.
• If your question receives only one answer, you can extend the open period for four additional days to allow more time for answers to be posted or you can pick ‘No Best Answer’.  When your question expires with only one answer, the question automatically goes to a vote, with No Best Answer as the second option.  If an answer is chosen as the best, your question becomes resolved. However, if the No Best Answer option is chosen as best, the question is automatically deleted and you get five points credited back to your Answers account.
• If a question doesn’t receive any answers, the question expires and is deleted.

A question becomes a Resolved Question when a Best Answer is chosen.  After a question becomes Resolved it stays in Yahoo! Answers and is available for searching and browsing.  The Best Answer remains open to receive comments and ratings from the community.

How do I put my question up for voting?

If you take no action and the question expires, it automatically goes to a vote.  Or:

1. Wait at least four hours after posting the question.
2. Go to the question within the open period, before it expires.
3. Click Edit in the action bar below the question.
4. Select Ask for a Vote in the edit menu.

How do I find questions up for voting?

1. Go to the category of your choice.
2. Select the In Voting tab.
3. Sort the unresolved questions as you like.

What’s a tiebreaker?

If the vote ends as a tie, your question remains in voting as a tiebreaker.  Once a vote has been cast, the question is checked shortly afterwards to determine if there is a best answer.  There are tons of questions out there waiting to be voted on because they’re in tiebreaker status.  Vote so you can get these questions resolved.

As you can see, voting makes a huge difference (both here in Answers and in the upcoming elections as well, hehehe).  If you choose an area you are expert in, you can easily vote for the best answer.  If you choose a category you don’t know much about, you end up learning a lot by reading the answers.  You can pick the best answer, based on detail, helpful tone and general quality, without having to be an expert in the subject area.

Vote now, it’s just one of the many things we can do to make Answers a better and more relevant community.

• Once your question is open for business, you can always add details. Just hover your mouse over the ‘edit’ section under your question to add details.
• Instead of asking the same question again, why not to give the community more time to answer? You have the option to extend the expiration of your question by three days- plenty of time to increase your chance at getting the answer you are looking for. Since your question is initially  given four days to be resolved, extending it means seven days to get an answer. At the end of the seven days, you will either have to pick a best answer or put your question up for voting. You will not be able to extend it any further.

• If your question does not get an answer, it will disappear. If this happens, you will recover the 5 points, and you can post it again. However, think before asking again: did you give enough details? Was the question written clearly? Try to give as many hints as possible to your potential answerers!
• And finally, a tip for a super question: pick the best answer. It’s a great way to reward that person who took some time to give you a brilliant answer to your question… Who doesn’t love a bit of an ego boost from time to time.

I hope you find this helpful.  Now go out there and ask questions!

Hi everyone, we have some planned maintenance scheduled on 12noon on Saturday, September 19.  During this time Answers will be unavailable.

Don’t worry though, there are heaps of other things to do on Yahoo! to fill your time!

• Check out the newly launched Yahoo! Asia Games website.
• Get up to date with what’s happening in the country through Yahoo! Philippines.
• Discover Yahoo!’s latest product for Pinoys called Meme.  It’s currently by invitation only righ now but if you leave a comment here, I can send you an invite so you can check it out yourself.

We appreciate your patience while we complete this vital maintenance, many thanks!