Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

Over the last eight weeks, we have been running the Yahoo! Answers Challenge. This has seen a selection of celebrities asking questions on Yahoo! Answers across a range of categories. Each celebrity has promoted a particular category for the duration of one week. This has been your cue to answer questions in that featured category to win some great prizes.

Here is a recap of the celebrities we have had on Answers over the last eight weeks, and their questions:

Jonathan Ross in Science and Mathematics: “If mankind wipes itself out, what species will become the dominant life form, and why?”

Dr Miriam Stoppard in Pregnancy and Parenting: “To what extent should parents be held responsible for the actions of their delinquent teenagers?”

David Bellamy in Environment and Ecology: “What is the most important everyday thing you could do to save the planet? And how would this help?”

Denise Robertson in Business and Finance: “In which areas of life, if any, do women outperform men?”

Pete Tong in Entertainment and Music: “What innovation could change the face of music during the next decade?“

Tom Aikens in Food and Drink: “How can we encourage families to spend more time eating together?”

Ernie Els in Sport: “What’s the best way to encourage children to take up sport?”

Jay Kay in Politics and Government: “What can we do to stop arms dealing to countries that use weapons against their own people?“

Thanks for your great answers to these questions – there have been some real gems! The competition is now closed. So what happens next and who has won?

We will be compiling the names of everyone who obtained a best answer in the featured category for that particular week. They will be placed into a prize draw which will take place on the 7^th December 2006. We will then notify the winners by their preferred method of contact on the same day.

Sorry for the delay – we have a lot of best answers to count!

If you need further guidance around this competition, drop us a line at y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk

–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

It’s time for another product release, which means new features and enhancements for Answers. As we’ve said before, the top priority for our team is to make sure you have a pleasant experience using our site, and that low quality Q&A does not get in your way. In this release, we’ve added tools that help us progress towards meeting our goals.  

What’s New?

Home Page: I’m sure you’ve already noticed the changes to the Answers Home Page in this release. The biggest change is the new featured content area which highlights the Best of Answers. Everyone likes seeing great content on Answers, so we’ve made some adjustments to our processes for surfacing the best content that the site has to offer. The Best of Answers is a dedicated space to showcase quality, smart, and interesting Q&A. So, keep an eye out – your question or answer may get featured as part of the Best of Answers!

Best Answer Percentage: By request, we’ve updated the avatar rollover to include best answer percentages. Now you can see whether a user has been contributing best answers to the site, without having to click through to his or her profile page. This feature is a step towards adding recognition into the system for users who are contributing best answers across the site.

Answer Filtering: In our last release, we added the ability to sort answers by rating — bringing highly rated answers to the top of the answer list. This time we’ve added even more control over how you view answers by including the option to collapse answers based on community ratings. Also, your sorting preferences will stick across questions and answers throughout Yahoo! Answers, so if you prefer, you can choose to exclusively view answers that the community has marked with thumbs-up ratings.

Question Categorization: We heard your complaints about questions being categorized improperly, and we agree. So, we came up with a solution. Now, when you ask a question, Answers will suggest a list of categories for you so you can now categorize your questions quickly and easily. This new feature will also help improve your experience browsing categories in Answers, as wrongly categorized questions should show up less frequently in your favorite categories.

Address Book: Ever wanted to email your friend a great question? Well, now it’s easy to send Answers content to anyone in your address book. Our email a friend form now accesses your address book, so when you click on the email icon in the action bar you will have access to all of the email addresses stored in your address book.

The Answers team is already hard at work on the next round of product features aimed at improving the quality of the site, so please continue to let us know what you think by sending us feedback in the forum. We hope you are enjoying Answers as much as the team enjoys working on new features.

–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

What steps can we take to conserve water?

Not content with five Grammy Awards, Jay-Z is also an advocate for water conservation and for the one billion people around the world who lack access to safe drinking water. Speaking on United Nations Radio, Jay-Z said he plans to use his music to educate people in conserving water as it is such a big issue. Accompanied by his fiancé, Beyonce, Jay-Z is currently in Australia performing with Rihanna and Ne-Yo on their Roc tha Block tour. 

Water shortages are occurrences that have come to affect us all in the UK over the last few years.  In south-eastern England, reserves of water are only at 54% of capacity, after the driest winter since 1963-4.  As a result, drought orders and other restrictions have been issued to 13 million people for the first time in this region in 11 years, amounting to bans on hosepipes, sprinklers, car washing, the filling of swimming pools and other non-essential uses.

It is not only affecting the UK.  Southern Spain, western and southern France are viewed as chronically vulnerable, while eyes are anxiously following water availability in parts of Portugal, Italy and Greece, incompletely recovered from the scorcher of three years ago.

In Spain, reservoirs and water tables are at their lowest levels in 10 years, failing to recharge after last year’s drought, which was the worst since reliable record-keeping began in 1947.

As part of Jay-Z’s voyage to bring awareness of the world water crisis, he is building 10 PlayPumps in Africa. Each PlayPump can be named, but we heard Jay-Z is having a bit of a hard time coming up with a name. So, Yahoo! Answers are collecting your suggestions for him - Simply leave your PlayPump name ideas in the blog comments below and we will pass them on.

Don’t forget to check out Jay-Z’s latest videos and singles on Yahoo! Music    

–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

“What can we do to stop arms dealing to countries that use weapons against their own people?“

The final week of the Yahoo! Answers Challenge is upon us and to round off the campaign we have the Space Cowboy Jay Kay, asking a question in the Politics and Government category.

Jay Kay? In Politics and Government? Surely he is a musician? Indeed Jay Kay has spent the last 15 years of his life making music in the band Jamiroquai. However he was keen to ask a question on an issue that is affecting many people around the world in countries with unscrupulous governments who often do not have a voice to ask this question themselves.Where are these arms produced and who are the biggest arms dealers in the world? In 2005, Russia, USA, Germany, UK and France controlled 82% of the market. This is quite shocking given that four of these countries are permanent UN members.

The sales of arms to countries with dubious human rights records is supposedly controlled with embargoes, however with the globalization of the arms industry loopholes allow weapons to get through. The use of these weapons on civilians causes human rights violations, death and misery for millions of people.

So how can we make a difference? Later this month, the UN will vote on a resolution towards creating a stronger Arms Trade Treaty. One way you can take action and make a difference is to send a message to the foreign ministers of countries that facilitate the distribution of arms to embargoed countries.

By following this link you can voice your support for the treaty by sending a message to these ministers with just one click of your mouse…

Maybe you have other ideas that can make a difference? If so, we want to hear them, and so does Jay Kay.

In the meantime, if you are a fan of Jay Kay’s music, check out his back catalogue on Yahoo! Music.

–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

We have teamed up with one of Britain’s biggest rock bands Keane to give you the chance to watch the band live in London – with a pair of free tickets!

Currently making the headlines on their UK tour, Keane have come to Yahoo! Answers for some inspiration.  Their question focuses on bands covering classic songs and is as follows: 

“What makes a truly great cover version and why?”

The question will be open for three days after which the band will be picking the best answer.  The person with the best answer will win a pair of tickets to see Keane at Alexandra Palace in London on Thursday 26^th October.  We will not be providing accommodation or any transport costs, just the tickets to see this amazing live act in one of London’s premiere venues.

Cover versions have long since occupied a special place in music fan’s hearts. But why they mean so much to so many people is harder to say. Perhaps it’s the magic of a great band making a good song even better? Or is it the sublime genius of a song transported far from its original roots?

Frankly, we’re not sure ourselves, so come on, give the band some advice on what makes a truly inspirational cover version and you could be in with a chance of watching them power through their new album, Under the Iron Sea, live on stage! 

In the meantime, check out their latest video, Nothing in my way, on Yahoo! Music
–Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team