Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

Update:We’re currently reviewing all entries for the Green competition on Answers. We’ll announce the winner soon.

Thanks,

— Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers team

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Are you an avid blogger? Well, then you might already know that you can add an Answers box to it. We call the tool that does this Yahoo! Builder.

Yahoo! Builder is one of the features that Answers and Yahoo! have created for you. To use it, you just need to log into your Answers profile and find a box at the bottom of the page which looks like this:

If you click on it, you’ll be redirected to a page that’ll give you different options of modules and their codes to be included in your blog. Depending on the space available within your blog, your template, the colors you’ve chosen and what you like, you can choose the one that fits your blog and tastes best. Modules are available in JavaScript, Flash and HTML. Each of them is different and has special features:

This module looks like this in its simplest version. It’s the one we like best because it’s easy to customize with colour, width, font type, size and content. Say that the focus of your blog is music, with this template you can choose to display questions on that specific topic or with particular keywords to ensure that your Answers module will be in tune with your blog. Once you’ve tailored it to your liking, you just need to use the code we’ll provide and add it to your blog. Its easy!

This module updates itself in real time and shows the questions you’ve asked in Answers, making it easy for your readers to reply to them in a fast and comfortable manner. It provides you with another way of surrounding yourself with the people you choose, since it’ll be another way of showing Answers to those who share your interests and will help you keep those you care for around to answer your questions, support you within the community and create content that appeals to you.

This is the simplest module we have; it’s small and you could say that it’s a direct link from your blog to Answers. You can add it wherever you want, and you can tell anyone who navigates your site to join Yahoo! Answers and answer your questions. It’s up to you, so what are you waiting for? Tell your friends and readers about it and get the best answers to all your questions!

Or perhaps what you’re still missing is a blog for you to customize and add your very own Answers module. If that’s the case, don’t worry. That’s another topic we’ll discuss some other time so that you too will be able to show off what you’ve been doing on Answers all around the net. If you’re already a blogger, then it’s time for you to try out how these modules and how easy it is to create them. Remember, all you have to do is log into your profile and all the instructions you need will be waiting for you.

Thousands of people from all over the world, including some of you, have responded to the plight of sixteen-year old Ugandan Joseph as he desperately tries to trace his mother.

As of today, over 4500 people have signed up to the British Red Cross game; ‘Traces of Hope’.

From Search to videos, online social search communities like us or other social networks, you can start playing and help Joseph in his quest.

If you haven’t sign up yet, visit the Traces of Hope website  and wait for Joseph to contact you with news of his situation, and the adventure will begin.

For more info on the game, see this blog post.

And we advise you to keep an eye on here, we might give you little hints for the game…

Last week we blogged about some of the great financial information that’s available from our experts on Answers. But as we wrote the piece, we found there was so much great knowledge being shared, it spread past just one post.

So here’s the second part, complete with information, advice and expertise on venture capital, stocks and commodities and even whether there’s a sunny side to the credit crunch! Enjoy…

What is venture capital?

Best Answer by Unbiased.co.uk

“Venture capital is where a person or an organisation puts up money to help a business grow. This might be at start up, to fund a management buy out, or where a business needs lots of capital and cannot get funding from the banking system. Venture capital companies are investing in the business and looking to make short term profits, typically with exit strategies of 3 years.

 This means that they want their investment back, plus profits after a three year period. Venture capital normally takes a shareholding in the business and can provide advice and management support. The business is subject to strict performance criteria and in the event that the business doesn’t succeed, it is usually the venture capital companies that get paid first.”

To read how VC trusts work or what a mutual fund is, read more here…

What’s the difference between stocks and commodities?

“When investors buy stocks they are buying shares in individual companies–hence the phrase the Stock Market. You take your money and buy shares in XYZ company in the belief that the value of the company will rise and so too will the value of your holding. The converse also applies, a falling value company sometimes becomes unattractive to invest in but not always so–businesses and economies are cyclical and hence values of stock goes up and comes down –the art is being able to buy when stock is out of favour and sell when its value is on upward momentum.”

To find out how risky commodities are read more here…

Has anyone any good news on the credit crunch?

Best Answer by Darren from Moneyfacts

“Savers are one sector who have benefited from the credit crunch as lenders are continuing to up rates in order to tempt savers through their doors. Rather than use the money markets to fund mortgages, which has become expensive, the institutions are relying on savers deposits. As such we have seen some of the highest rates ever seen being offered, certainly the highest when base rate was at the same level.”

To read how mortgage rates have been affected by the credit crunch, click here…

Read part one of this post here…

Play online now!

We’re very proud to announce that Answers has teamed up with The British Red Cross to bring you one of the first ever charity online Alternate Reality Game (ARG).

‘Traces of Hope’ is the story of Joseph, a sixteen-years-old boy, caught up in the aftermath of the Ugandan civil war. He’s been separated from his family, and now left alone in a camp overflowing with thousands forced to flee and, always in the look for food, Joseph is desperately seeking his mother.

But he needs your help…

Traces of Hope @ Yahoo! Video

When we told the British Red Cross we had a dedicated community of passionate experts on Answers ready to make themselves available to Joseph, they were delighted and relieved: the hunt can start!Set in Northern Uganda, Traces of Hope combines storytelling, detective work and technology in a hunt across the internet to reunite him with his mother.

“While it is involving and exciting, Traces of Hope also has a serious point; there are thousands of people like Joseph all around the world whose lives are shattered by conflict. But all around the world, wherever you find people like Joseph, you’ll also find the Red Cross, reconnecting families and rebuilding lives” (Dorothea Arndt, British Red Cross, New Media Manager).

Joseph is alone in Uganda but you have the internet and the Answers community. With this support you should be able to help Joseph, but time is running out … visit the Traces of Hope website and dive into the experience. Once signed up, the adventure will begin…

If you make any progress with the game, why not share with the community what you thought about it or any tips you might have? Leave your comments here to help others out!