Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

Over the next few weeks you will see a range of celebrities and experts asking questions on Yahoo! Answers. 

Last week we had the authors and music journalists Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton asking questions in the music category as part of the DJ Centenary on Yahoo! Music.

Today we have Donald Trump asking “what lessons can we learn from successful entrepreneurs?” in the Business and Finance category.  This is part of the Ask the Planet promotion.

Ask the Planet is a US Answers promotion where each weekday a new category will be featured, accompanied by a question asked by a notable celebrity, expert, or even a featured user.  Some of the notable questioners over the next three weeks include Al Gore, Stephen Hawking and Bono.  The best answerer in the category of the day gets one entry for a chance to win the prize for the day.  Prizes include three ounces of gold, a plasma HDTV, a Toyota hybrid car, massages for a year and some cold hard cash.

Unfortunately this competition is only open to US citizens.  But don’t despair: we will be having a UK-only competition coming up soon!

So far Ask the Planet has been providing some highly interesting questions and answers across a range of categories, and you can still answer these questions.  In the meantime keep an eye on the Answers blog in the next few weeks and we’ll keep you informed of the latest celebrity questions on Answers.

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

Many of our users have been wondering when Yahoo! Answers would be available in Spanish, French, and other languages.Well….ask and ye shall receive!  In our on-going quest for world domination, the team is excited to announce that as of Monday evening, Yahoo! Answers has officially become multilingual.  We’ve expanded our international presence to NINE additional markets and in FIVE new languages.  In addition to our existing sites in US, UK, Canada, Australia, and India, we now have Yahoo! Answers in: Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, US Spanish language, and Singapore.

Please extend a warm welcome to the latest additions to the Yahoo! Answers community.  Now you’ve got more places to test out your foreign language skills, ask your questions and share your knowledge globally: Find out from Germans whether it’s still possible to get tickets for the FIFA World Cup or take a look at the French site to find out what their recommendations are for a good mid-range Bordeaux.

We ask that in utilizing these international sites, you post in the language of the site (e.g. German questions on the German site) and answer in the language of the original question.  Otherwise, until we get some nice translation technology in there, it could get rather confusing for both askers and answerers alike.

We’re so excited to share Yahoo! Answers with even more of the world–we’re just starting out in those markets so please help us spread Answers and keep that feedback coming!

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

P.S. In the meantime, Answerers of legal drinking age can help us celebrate the occasion by mixing up a cocktail we’re calling, “The Best Answer” … courtesy of one of our international Yahoo! product managers, who has been a great supporter.  The cocktail is lovely shade of green that matches our site and is quite delicious too!

“THE BEST ANSWER”

Ingredients:

4 parts vodka
4 parts vanilla vodka
4 parts Godiva white chocolate liqueur
2 parts heavy cream
1 part crème de menthe
Dark or white chocolate

Add the vodka, vanilla vodka, white chocolate liqueur, and cream to a shaker with ice, and shake vigorously until very cold.  Strain into a chilled glass.  Without emptying the shaker, add crème de menthe to the residue of the vodka/cream mixture and shake vigorously.  Drizzle into glass; the mint will gradually sink to form a green layer at the bottom of the glass.  Garnish the top with either shaved white chocolate or dark chocolate to suit your taste.

Enjoy!

Is “flashing” an acceptable online activity?  It is when you’re showing off your Answers badge!  We’ve had an Answers badge for a while, but it doesn’t work on many of the most popular web sites.   So, to make things easier, we’ve created a new badge using Flash technology.

By cutting and pasting a bit of code, you’ll be able to put your badge on lots of different web sites.   We’ve even created a great page to help you get started.   If you don’t know HTML, it’s simple to change the size and color of the badge, and now it shows both questions you’ve asked and questions you’ve answered.

Maybe I’m a simple man, but I’m particularly amused by the sliding animation that I get when clicking on “My Questions” and “My Answers” in the badge.  And since it’s always up to date, visitors to your site will be able to see the latest and greatest questions and answers from your Yahoo! Answers account.  You’ll be able to show off your knowledge AND highlight your burning questions for all the world to see.

All you do is go to your “My Q&A” page and click the “get a badge” link on the bottom.   We’ve written some easy instructions explaining how to use the new badge and you should be up and running in no time.   To get a better idea of what the badge looks like on a web site, take a look at Udi’s blog. We’re really excited about how people will use these badges, so show us how it turns out. Best implementation gets undying admiration from the Yahoo! Answers team!

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

PS – Any UK readers adding the badge to your site, why not add a comment and draw our attention to both your blog and your badge?

The web is a great source for finding cooking ideas. Now with Answers, I’ve got an even simpler way of finding new, adventurous recipes as well as personal recipes people are willing to share.

Food and Drink is one of our most popular categories and we have some budding chefs high up on the leaderboard. Looking at their answers is a sure-fire way to find tasty dishes. However, just browsing in the Cooking and Recipes sub-category reveals culinary tips like how to peel onions without crying and advice such as a theme for a dinner party?

Here are some of our favourite recipes on Answers so far:

• A thorough recipe for white bean soup
• Butter chicken a version of the popular dish found in Indian restaurants
• A really easy curry recipe
• Quick, cheap and easy vegetarian recipes ideal for parties

Away from food, knowledge and suggestions around beer, wine and spirits are well represented. Been looking for that perfect Irish coffee? Perhaps you want to taste the strongest beer in the world? Or, did the party go awry last night and you need to remove red wine from a white carpet?

Food, glorious food? It certainly is when you guys are making it!

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

As we barrel through our 10 million answers barrier, many of you have noticed that it’s getting harder to keep track of your favourite questions and answers.  No worries–this is where the Watch List can help you out.  Basically, our Watch List lets you keep track of your favourite questions in the system, so you don’t have to jump through any hoops to keep track of them yourself.

Any question can be tracked simply by clicking the Add to Watch List link next to every question.  Now this question will always appear at the bottom of your My Q&A page in the Watch List section.  Also, only you will be able to see your own Watch List – other users visiting your profile page won’t be able to see the questions you’re tracking.

So, next time you see a question of interest but don’t have time to answer it immediately, or you want to keep one of your own questions or answers handy for quick reference, use the Watch List to make your life easier.  It’s one of the ways we thought up to make your experience on Answers easier and more fun.
Happy Watching!

– Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team