Yahoo! India Answers blog

Following our changes to the Search experience on Answers last week we received a lot of feedback from you, the community, around the changes we had made.

We’ve reacted to your feedback to make changes that now allow you to add parameters to the URL, which will enable you to sort the search results to your preference. In order to do this, here are the parameters you would need to add:
&orderby=+date (to sort by most recent)
&orderby=-date (to sort by oldest)
For example a search for `dogs` gives this URL: http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?p=dogs

If you want to sort search results by the most recent, simply add `&orderby=+date` to the end of the URL: http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?p=dogs&orderby=+date
We will look to add these filters within the page itself over the coming months.

In addition, we have noticed that search terms within quotation marks (“ and “) were returning no results. A few code tweaks later and hey presto – results have now returned!

Further changes

Last but not least, we’ve also taken this opportunity to fix some other bugs on the site:
- For Internet Explorer users we’ve fixed the layout issue on the Ask/Answer/Discover banner.
- We have also made changes to content deletion. Previously, when you deleted your question or answer, it was still showing in the public view of your profile page. From now on when you delete a question or answer, it will be entirely removed from your public profile page

Keep the feedback coming!

Photo by chrisjohnbeckett

At the start of the year, many people often think about getting things in shape: their homes, their bodies, but they don’t stop to think about getting their computers in shape. While online safety and virus protection should be thought about year round, this is a great time to take a quick refresher course on some of the common online threats that you may (or may not) encounter while surfing the net.

Online and within the news you’ve likely heard of some of the most common terms (malware, spam, viruses, and Trojans), but may not have known what they are, or, how to protect yourself or your computer from them. We’ve pulled together a quick resource guide outlining the who’s who, and where to go for more information. But when online, some of the most important things to remember are:

Don’t trust pop-ups; things pretending to be virus checkers may actually be viruses (more on that later)
You don’t have to understand a lot about online security to protect against the most common online threats. Keep your computer up to date and be suspicious about the sites you visit- employ the same skills you do in real life as you do online: don’t give out your personal information to strangers, and don’t trust something because it “sort of” looks official. And remember to trust your instincts: if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t.

What’s malware?
Malware is software that does something you don’t want done, usually installed without your permission. It includes viruses, worms and Trojans.

What is spam?
Spam is/can be: the repeated postings of the same content; off topic banter/answers/comments; links to commercial sites or merchandise; in general, unsolicited, unwanted or irrelevant messages, links or postings. You may run into it in your inbox, on message boards, in comments sections, etc. Basically, anywhere that someone can enter or submit text is susceptible to spam.

What is phishing?
This is any attempt to steal your account information. Phishers set up fake web sites that look like those of trusted companies to trick you into disclosing your account information. These pages can look nearly identical to the real thing, so it can be hard to tell that you are on a phony site.

Most commonly, you’ll see these as emails asking for the password to your bank account, your Yahoo! email account (urging you to send your account information or else your account will be terminated), or your credit card information. If you run into a phishing email on Yahoo!, please do report it to us!

Remember to never click on links in emails, no matter how official they look. Use bookmarks or physically type the site name in.

To protect yourself further, set a sign-in seal and don’t give out your Yahoo! password on your computer unless you see your sign-in seal (for more information on this, go here. This helps you know when you’re on a phishing page, or when you’re on a legitimate Yahoo! login page.

Yahoo! Security Center

At http://security.yahoo.com/ you can assess your PC’s exposure to online threats, including malware, viruses, and an assortment of other online risks. Additionally, you can also learn about:

Protecting your PC
Protecting your online privacy
Protecting your children online at Yahoo! Safely
Getting rid of pop-ups, viruses, adware, or spyware
And much more!

How to help protect your machine

Be sure that your computer has antivirus software installed and that its virus definitions are up-to-date- many computers do not, and this leaves them open to many malware attacks. Programs like Norton Anti-Virus or http://www.malwarebytes.org/ will help protect and prevent future attacks.

If you see a pop-up, close it promptly, without clicking on anything inside the window (buttons inside the window may download software, no matter what the label on them says, even if it’s “No”, or “Cancel”). Click the close button on the window frame (the “x” in the upper right on a Windows machine, the red button in the upper left on a Mac).

If that doesn’t work use “Ctrl + F4″ on Windows or “Shift + Cmd + W” on an Apple machine to close the window. Worst case, kill the browser with the Task Manager on Windows or Force Quit on a Mac, and if you can’t do that, reboot the machine. (Be sure to save your work in other programs!)

Then run a virus-scan using an anti-virus program to check for any malware remnants.

At the end of the day, it’s up to YOU to help keep your online experience safe—keep your software up-to-date and be cautious about giving out information, including passwords.

Phir Mile Sur?

Back in 1988, on August 15, it is safe to say that the whole of India had a lump in its throat and most Indians walked the streets with their heads held a little higher than usual. On this day, Doordarshan released an iconic anthem called Mile Sur (Join notes) which spoke about secularism and national integration. The tune was catchy, the music upbeat, the message non-preachy, and the featured Indians, including a few common folk who represented the ‘aam aadmi’ (common man), were loved by all of India.

Cut to 2010.
All of India celebrated its Republic Day yesterday (January 26). While there were the usual parades, flag hoisting and award ceremonies, what most of India occupied itself with was in tuning into Zoom TV, and watching Phir Mile Sur, the iconic anthem of 1988 re-made.

The Big B in Phir Mile Sur

It is safe to say that this re-make has had mixed responses.

While most want to know why something was left out – WHY DID MAKERS OF PHIR MILE SUR MERA TUMHARA REMOVE SINDHI CONTENT? – many want to know if anyone really liked this new version of a very popular and intensely patriotic song – Did anyone like the new”phir mile sur mera thumhara” video? I felt it as the song of bollywood?

Like this Answerer, many Indians who’ve watched both are terribly disappointed with the way this new production by Zoom TV and the Times of India has turned out especially when compared to the earlier version. What did you think, Answerers? Is it even fair to compare? But what really is the message of Phir Mile Sur? And are the featured personalities really the icons of young India? Do the notes really join in this version? What do you think? Leave us your comment.

Watch Phir Mile Sur here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq31OjsQ124)

And Mile Sur here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gstRrEmTcBc)

- Bhumika Anand
Community Manager

26 days into the New Year, I’m sure most of us have lost the battle of the bulge. But with this fun campaign that we have on the United States Answers portal, we can still motivate ourselves to stay in shape for Valentine’s Day on February 14.

We’ve enlisted the help of Joan Arico and Joanne Haggerty: two fitness pros from “>here and Joan and Joanne will select a handful and answer them over the next few weeks. With your questions and their help, together we’ll help get the Yahoo! Answers community in shape for 2010!

Each week, we’ll feature one question on the blog, as well as health tips and tricks that will help you get in shape and meet your health goals for 2010.

Joan and Joanne: Our Fitness Gurus
Joan Arico

Joan has over 25 years of experience in Corporate Fitness and is certified in both Group Exercise Instruction and Personal Training . She is an AFAA Certified Group Exercise Instructor, AFAA Certified Personal Trainer, BS Degree Recreation Administration, CPR/AED Certified.

Joanne Haggerty

Joanne believes that physical activity should be an integral part of your life as much as is brushing your teeth, but far more fun and enjoyable. She is a personal trainer and works in both individual and group wellness programs.

Between the two of them, they have more than 33 years of fitness and health experience in both the personal and professional sector. Both enjoy sharing fitness and lifestyle tips with others in addition to keeping Yahoo! healthy!

Please note that all questions must be in line with the “>here.

Here are two easy-to-follow suggestions from the fitness gurus that will help us stay fit!

Question: “Can you help hook us up with a diet/exercise buddy where we can commiserate or compare and help keep other on track?” – Love Life

Answer: You bet! We know that part of what makes losing weight tough is feeling like you’re on your own. To help you feel like you’re a little less “on your own” we’ve set up a Yahoo! Group called “Get fit, Stay Healthy! ” (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/getfitstayhealthy) for anyone looking to find a buddy, share their story, or share weight-loss tips.

Please remember this group is NOT open to spam or marketing, so please don’t join it looking to promote your acai-berry shakes, or your weight loss pills. We’ll also cross-post our fitness tips there each week, as well as fitness and health tips from the health editors over at Shine. We hope to see you all there!

Question: “What are some practical fitness options for corporate employees? Some of those guys spend up to 10 hours in their offices. People are designed to be active, but sometimes our jobs make that impossible for us. We aren’t a country of farm and factory workers anymore. We sit in offices and stare at computer screens. What are some easy ways to step back from the desk and get active, even if we have to do it at home?” – Austin D

Answer: Office workers have to work a little harder to burn calories because of the hours of sedentary living. To counteract this, you can try: walking or exercising during lunch breaks, stretching at your desk, workout before or after work. Or, better yet, have meetings while you walk.

An easy solution when your in the office is to take the stairs instead of taking the elevator, and park as far away from the building as you can—that way you’ll have to walk clear across the parking lot to get to your car in the morning and the evening.

When you get home from work, play with your kids outdoors to cut down on TV time and make exercise a family activity. All of these things can help make corporate employees more active (and productive!) both at home and in the office.

Question: “i was just about to ask this question: i am not muscular. i need biceps and a six pack. should i exercise every day? what should i do? i love yahoo answers. i find everything i need on here. thanks yahoo!” — wil

Answer: Thanks for the kudos. For us to see those muscles, you have to work off excess body fat and then have muscles to show! Think healthy eating, cardio, and weights! For a few easy and quick workouts, check out this article from Shine.

For more tips and tricks, and to see what questions our fitness gurus answer next, be sure to check back here next week!

Did you know that on average, 10% of questions are in tie-breaker status at any given time on Yahoo! Answers? And, at any given moment, there are literally millions of questions open on Answers?

For many members, it’s easy to get swept up in the “Ask” and “Answer” flow as you watch the steady stream of answers that come in when you ask a great question. But then the tough part comes: picking a Best Answer! How do you choose?

If you’re looking for a few tips on how to pick your next Best Answer, here are a few taken straight from our community :

“To put it simply, I go with the one that is the most useful or the least useless. I do notice the number of thumbs-ups and downs the answer gets, and I use that and the level/BA percentage of an answerer to determine whether or not I should trust the answerer, but the main deciding factor is what I think of the answer itself. A concise but comprehensive explanation beats a long drawn-out half off topic lecture.” – Luigi
However, “According to the specification of the question I read carefully and I compare it to the other questions, I make sure their answers make sense and have more clear explanations. Not always the thumbs up are right and this person can be wrong, So I read & understand before I give my best answer…8)” – “Evo_Raptor”
“[…] If there are two equally good answers, I choose the one with better grammar, punctuation, and spelling.” – *Sombra*
“I pick Best Answer by re-reading through all the answers again from my question. Then pick the one that was the most helpful, informative, and the answerer was polite while giving me the information I needed.” – Future Pet Vet
“Whoever has clearly spent the most time answering the question and not just put silly 1 word answers or sarcastic comments. Also, if i believe the answer is 100% true.” – Craig and Charlie

Even with tips like these, picking a best answer can be tough—and for many Answers community members, it becomes so tough, questions go unresolved and end up in tie-breaker status.

But for those of you who enjoy helping the undecided pick a Best Answer, be sure to check out the Answers TieBusters group—a group dedicated to clearing the backlog of undecided questions found on Answers: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Yah00AnswersTieBusters/

All in all, remember: If you asked a question, choose a Best Answer! Otherwise your question may end up in Answers limbo, and you may never give someone the joy of earning a Best Answer!

I like the way the New Year has begun.

A movie like 3 Idiots released and has since been gaining in popularity.

One of our Answerers Erpex asked, “What is special or different in ’3 idiots’ movie?” And I like the question.

So what is special about 3 Idiots?
The movie makes us laugh and it makes us think.
Without being too preachy and uptight it showcases everything that is wrong with our Indian society today especially with our educational system.
Those three boys sitting in an engineering college and learning to look at the world a little differently could be any of us and our two friends during school and college.

And watching the movie, we learn lessons. We learn not to pursue success but to run behind excellence. We are told that we must pursue knowledge and not marks. We must make the most of learning and not the degree.

It is truly very inspiring.

It looks like finally India is waking up to the realisation that there is more to education than just being an engineer or an MBA. All is well. Or is it really?

Have you watched 3 Idiots? What did you think of the message in the movie? Do you think we will eventually see young Indians pursuing learning instead of just a degree? Is it practical? Do you think we need to change our education system?
Leave us a comment.

And yes, Happy New Year 2010. Our message to Answerers? Ask. Answer. Discover. Really, that’s what life is about.

Bhumika Anand
Community Manager

So what really was 2009 all about?

You can find the answer to that question on the Yahoo! Answers Highlights 2009.
The Yahoo! Answers Highlights of 2009 is a free eBook that spans across 12 months and tells you what question was predominantly on the Indian psyche each month.

Examples of this include:
Why do Muslims fast during Ramadan?
What is the sure shot method of getting rid of cockroaches from my kitchen?
What is the impact of global economic recession in India?

But no, we won’t tell you everything here. Download your free copy right now and see for yourself.

* Download Highlights 2009 for free!

And yes, here’s wishing you a very happy 2010!

- Bhumika Anand
Community Manager

Back in October (http://yanswersblog.com/index.php/archives/2009/10/05/did-you-know/) we announced that with your help, Yahoo! Answers hit the 1 billion question and answers mark. At this point, we also reached an astounding 179 million users around the world!

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!

This week, while we citizens continue to lose our jobs, our savings, and our patience; the Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (aka the G-20) will convene in London to try to figure out some solutions to our global economic crisis.

The G-20 is a group of the top economic leaders from 20 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the U.K., the U.S.A., and The E.U.  If you add them all together, the G-20 economies comprise 85% of global gross national product, 80% of world trade, and two-thirds of the world population. The G-20 likes to meet every year or so to discuss global markets, economic policies, trade, and the like. Obviously, this year they have a lot to talk about.

So, I guess we can all relax now that we know that our best economic and government leaders are on the case, right? We can just wait around while they think up a solution, right? I hope so. But, one could argue, after all, that it was banking and lending institutions that got us into this mess in the first place.

Just before last year’s G-20 summit in Washington, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said, “We must rethink the financial system from scratch, as at Bretton Woods.” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said we must agree to a “new, international financial architecture for the years ahead.” And perhaps they’re right. Maybe we should stop relying on misguided bankers and financial pundits to solve our problems. Maybe instead, our heads of state should look to Yahoo! Answers.

Should we let the banks and investment funds fail? Should we continue to prop them up with tax money? Should we buy more? Consume less? Should we be more green and less profitable, or should we say to heck with the environment and start dumping all of our toxic waste into the ocean? Maybe we should just ditch the whole system and return to the woods where we could learn to hunt and survive on nuts and berries! Maybe not.

So, we ask you, Answers community:

What can we do to help solve the current global economic crisis?

How can the US government work with other countries to overcome the global economic crisis?

Since this is truly an international problem, we’re asking this question on all of our international Answers sites, too. The best answers will be featured in a coming blog post. So, let’s give our economic leaders something to think about! We look forward to all of your opinions and ideas.

Shefali Gaur
Community Manager – Yahoo! India Answers

The migration to the new Profile platform is almost complete for Answers  and we understand some of you are concerned about certain changes.  Rest assured, as we are always working on improvements, your feedback is very important hence we would like to address some of the issues you have raised over the past weeks.

What if I want a different image for Answers?
Remember, you can change your profile image whenever you want. Feel free to post a different profile picture so you don’t feel like you are always displaying the same image. Also, don’t forget you can also use an avatar on Answers. We have many cool avatars that can be personalized to reflect your individuality (check them out here: http://avatars.yahoo.com). As mentioned before, for those of you who display an avatar on Answers, both avatar and nickname will continue to remain the same.

What about resizing my image?
You’ve also noticed images have to be cropped in your profile on Yahoo!. If you’re worried about losing part of the image, why not choose one with a large background? This way, the square cropping required on your profile on Yahoo! will have a minimal effect.

Is this the same for all Yahoo! products?
Your universal profile on Yahoo! is gradually being rolled out in phases, so there are currently a few properties (including Flickr, MyBlogLog, Messenger, etc.) that do not use profiles at this time.  The profiles team is working closely with each of the other Yahoo! properties to create a smooth transition to the new profiles service. We know that you value your experiences on Yahoo! and want to make sure that the integrity of these sites (and your membership) is maintained, which is why this process has been done gradually instead of all at once.

Please continue to share your constructive feedback with us, as we know the only way for us to improve these services is with your help.

Shefali Gaur
Community Manager – Yahoo! India Answers