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!

Here are some of the changes that we have made:

• Easier Category Navigation: We’ve moved the list of categories and subcategories to the top of the page instead of listing down the left-hand side. This should make it easier for you to move to a different category without needing to scroll down the page.
• More Space on the Page: Just like we did with the question page last year, we wanted to offer you more space in the category page by moving to a wider page design which is optimized for a higher screen resolution.
• More Prominent Leaderboard: Who doesn’t want to be famous?  The right-hand side of the page now lists the top 10 answerers for the category or subcategory you are browsing.  We wanted to give more prominence not only to the category leader, but to rest of the top contributing answerers as well.  We also heard from you guys that when a category was being sponsored you still wanted to be able to see how you were doing in that category’s Leaderboards. The new category design allows this.
• More Prominent Question List:  You visit the category page to look for questions to answer, right?  We’ve made the question list wider and more visible to help youyou’re your answers in there faster.
• Sort by “Most Popular” Questions – We’ve added a “most popular” sort filter on the sidebar so you can see what the community is most interested in with just one click.
• Sticky Question Tabs – Open, resolved, and in voting tabs are now “sticky,” meaning that as you move between categories, your tab choice will persist for the session even as you vote for questions in different categories.

We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for you to use and participate in Answers, and we hope these changes continue to help you find the questions that may be most interesting to you.

As always (but especially when we change stuff on Answers) we would love to know what you think. So why don’t you check out the new category page and leave us a comment with your feedback?  Thanks everyone!

Photo by Travelin’ Librarian

I believe it’s not a secret that one of the most addicting and engaging reasons people come back to Yahoo! Answers is because it’s a great platform to share your experiences and knowledge by answering other people’s questions.  Everyone benefits from people who post really good answers and to get more people to do this, we’re sharing to you the five golden rules about answering questions.  Here are THE rules to ensure quality-answers which will certainly contribute to making Answers a relevant place to ask questions:

1. Remember that you are answering to help the asker: Don’t answer just for the sake of getting points or to advertise your own questions to the community.  If you don’t know the answer, skip to a question you may be more knowledgeable about.  And remember, we now have suggested questions for active users.  These are questions that will automatically appear on your homepage.

2. Be polite and respectful: No one likes to be ridiculed and insulted.  If you don’t agree with the question, offer your point of view in a constructive and respectful way.  Answers IS a diverse community where everyone is entitled to their own opinion. If YOU FEEL THAT a question or answer violates the community guidelines, report it.

3. Use correct spelling: Avoid text lingo and grammatical errors.  An answer filled with spelling mistakes and typos is confusing and doesn’t improve the Answers quality.  The more understandable your answer is, the higher the opportunities it has to be chosen as best answer or make an impression on someone else.

4. Be relevant: Don’t digress or change the subject when answering a question.  Give a concise answer that sticks to the point.

5. Link to existing sources that have the answer to the question: If you know an excellent website or book that might help, mention it – as long as it’s not spam of course.  Also cite your sources, they are always helpful if anyone wants more information.

If you want to know more about it, don’t hesitate to visit our community guidelines and our help pages.  Feel free also to share with the community some good questions or answers that you found on the site in your comments to this post.

Photo by efilpera

Recently we’d had feedback that a few glitches on the site have been impacting on the overall experience for many of you, which we apologize for.

So, like an automobile that occasionally needs to be sent to the mechanics for some re-tuning,  we had to send Answers into the garage for a little bit of maintenance.

We’ve now taken it off the blocks and here are the fixes you will see since this latest release:

• Many of you were not regularly receiving immediate email notifications when your network posted a question.  We appreciate how vital it is to get your questions to your Answers network and we have now fixed this to ensure everyone should receive the emails on time.
• One bug that has been a frustration to many of you for a while now is the ability of people you have added to your ‘Blocked users’ list to still be able to post answers to your questions.  This will no longer happen.  Blocked users will no longer be able to answer your questions — we’re sure some of you will be delighted by this!
• When questions are in voting, we’d noticed the total number of votes were not adding up correctly.  After sending the Yamster on a quick mathematics course, we now have the correct totals back on display again.
• A couple of months ago, we introduced inactive hyperlinks for Level 1 users.  To continue to protect everyone using our site against potentially malicious links we’ve made some improvements to this functionality to ensure the right to post hyperlinks really is only earned by trust.
• One piece of feedback we regularly hear is that you want more information on why content has been deleted.  We’ve now refreshed the Violation Notifications that we send to inform you of your content being deleted.  These will now include more details about the actual violation that was committed and hope this will help you better understand why your content was removed from the site.  Remember, all content on the site must be within the community guidelines (hyperlink to CG’s).

Finally, we’ve also laid the groundwork for some more radical changes to certain parts of the site design… so watch this space!

Keep your feedback coming, and we’ll continue to work on keeping the site well oiled!  Thanks everyone!