A new feature has been added to Yahoo Answers, which has become a very successful destination at the Internet portal. Answers gained a new ability to share thanks to its development team.
How far in advance are Girl Scout Cookies baked? The better question may be, “Why am I asking?”
Yahoo displayed that question in a screenshot as part of its announcement of the latest Yahoo Answers feature. It’s a simple way to share interesting questions, through the use of Stars.
By clicking the star on a question, the question becomes part of the person’s Answers profile. Tara Kirchner posted at Yahoo’s Search Blog that the new feature helps bring interesting questions to the attention of others, much in the way Flickr’s Interestingness and del.icio.us Popular do for those sites.
There is a social media quality to Stars that becomes apparent when learning about the feature. Elizabeth from the Answers team wrote about how starring works; see if it looks familiar:
Questions that you star will appear in your starred list located on your public profile page. In addition, when you star a question your nickname will be added to the list of users who have starred that particular question. The list is located on the question’s page, and can be explored by all members of the community, allowing you to find people who are interested in similar topics and questions.
If you thought, “hey, that sound like Digg,” you’re not alone in thinking so. Why not emulate a successful feature of a social media site, especially with an already popular service?
Yahoo has other plans for enhancing the social connectivity of Answers. Elizabeth also wrote of the development of new functionality, where Answerers will be able to connect to each other. Other tweaks and features will also hit Answers in coming months.
Back to the question of Thin Mints and Caramel deLites. A couple of people have posted answers, but neither one really addressed the question directly. Just how far in advance of a Girl Scout Cookie drive do they bake those cookies?
Anyone? Bueller?
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
