What’s been going on with Yahoo! Answers?
It’s hard for us on the core product team to believe that it’s only been 2 months since we launched the beta of Yahoo! Answers. Since then, we’ve added many features to the site in a steady stream of improvements. So it seems like a good time to catch you up!
To refresh, Answers is a question and answer exchange that enables people to tap into the collective wisdom of a world of web users.
Here’s a few of the new features you’ll find:
Yeah, What You Said
Sometimes, a question you ask has already been answered. And sometimes, you might stumble upon a better way to ask a question. So we developed an Ajax widget that searches previously asked questions as you’re typing in your question. Look below to see how it works.
Users Helping Users
Before long, people started using Answers to ask questions about Answers. So we started a Yahoo! Products section, where users respond to fellow users’ questions about Answers. This worked so well, we’ve expanded the product section to include Yahoo! Mail, 360, and Messenger. Users also tell us what’s on their minds in the Forum, or leave a comment on our Blog. We’re also highlighting users in a new weekly Featured User section, as well as highlighting the top 5,000 point getters on the Leaderboard.
Showing What You Know
For those bloggers and website owners, we built a Badge that can be customized and displayed on any website or blog. Grab your own toolbar button while you’re there.
Oh, and now you can get an RSS feed of Q&A by search keywords, in addition to your own Q&A, other user’s Q&A, and Q&A by category.
There are many more features coming soon, so come visit us at Yahoo! Answers. We look forward to hearing from you!
Yumio Saneyoshi and the Yahoo! Answers team
I’d like to see that AJAX widget that shows likely questions while you’re typing. But when I go to the site, it seems I have to sign in before I do anything.
My Yahoo email address expired recently, and while the ID still works, Answers won’t work without a verified email address.
I’m sorry, but that’s more hoops than I want to jump through just now, just to try out a new service. I also have to wonder at the wisdom of keeping Answers exclusive in this way.
On the other hand, Answers is in Beta, still, so this might be a way of keeping it from growing too quickly. Not unlike how Gmail grew.
All the same, I’d like to see that widget. Sounds nifty.
“I also have to wonder at the wisdom of keeping Answers exclusive in this way.”
Meh. Answers is not exclusive enough. Not only should you have a Yahoo account, you should pass a basic intelligence test before being allowed to participate. Have you seen the stupid questions people post there? The signal-to-noise ratio is unbelievable.
I think the AJAX interface should work right in the first screen itself. There is enough space to show a dynamic popup on the left to show matching questions instead of forcing users to click “Post Question” first.
My 2 cents! :-)
Think that the AJAX interface should somehow be posted Before, the question answered. Save some time and an extra Click.
I’ve been using answers for a quite while. I like the new look and functionality.