While these changes have taken place, many of you have had questions about where we have relocated your favorite features, and what changes lie ahead. Below you’ll find some of the most commonly asked questions and their answers.

Q: Previously, I could click on “My Profile” to go straight to my profile page. This link is gone—how do I get to this page now?

A: To easily access your profile page, you can either click on your name next to the “Hello” message, or, click on the “My Activity” tab to jump straight to your profile.

Q: Below my name there’s now an “invite your friends” link—what does this do?”

A:   Clicking on the “Invite your friends” link allows you to easily invite any of your friends to join you on Yahoo! Answers.  From this page, you can easily enter in the email addresses of your family and friend and encourage them to join you on Answers—that way if you’ve recently asked a question on Answers and think your Aunt Sally may know the Answer but know she’s not on Answers, you can easily get her on board, and, get her to answer your question!

Please note that if you’re a Level 1 member, instead of seeing “invite your friends” you’ll instead see a link reading, “What are points and levels?,” encouraging you to learn more about Answers. For members who are level 2 and higher, you’ll be seeing this link added in under the “About” tab in the near future.

Q: How do I see my suggested questions?

A: If you have suggested questions, they’ll show up on your homepage as they did before. Currently, we don’t have a message in place that tells you “there are no suggested questions available at this time” but we’re looking to add this back in the near future.

Q: How do I see my recent activity details?

A: To see your recent activity details, just click on the “My Activity” tab—from here, you can see your activity summary, your activity details, as well as your questions, answers, starred questions and your watchlist.

Also from this page, you can easily click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to edit the content found within your Answers profile, or, if you’re elsewhere on the Answers site, just hover back on the “My Activity” tab and click on the “Edit My Preferences” link to be taken to the same edit screen.

Q: Now that you’ve changed the look and feel of Answers, what’s next?

A: We always have a few tricks up our sleeve, so be on the lookout for new things heading your way. In the meantime, we still love hearing your thoughts about the new homepage and the changes to search, so please keep the constructive feedback coming!

If you have additional “how-to” questions about the new homepage or search, or, just want to tell us what you think, please leave a comment below or stop by the Suggestion Board!

Monday marked the 60th anniversary of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “Top 10 Most Wanted” list. Over the years, the list has hosted hundreds of dangerous criminals, from armed robbers to terrorists to murderers. But, who was the first bad guy to ever make the list? Was he caught? Was it even a “he”?

I visited the FBI’s official site, found a section on the agency’s history, and began my search. While the FBI is over 100 years old, the Most Wanted list didn’t start until 1950, after a reporter asked for “the names and descriptions of the ‘toughest guys’ the Bureau would like to capture.” The story created a lot of attention. Soon enough FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover started the official “Most Wanted” list. It’s very first member: Thomas James Holden.

Mr. Holden was indeed a very bad guy and well deserving of the FBI’s full attention. Wanted by law enforcement for the murders of his wife, her brother, and her stepbrother, Holden had also made a reputation for himself as half of the Holden-Keating gang from the 1920s and 1930s.

According to Time magazine, he was caught in 1951 in Oregon. Wikipedia mentions that he was nabbed thanks to a tipster who had read the article on the “toughest guys.” Holden died in prison in 1953.

The Most Wanted List is still remarkebly successful. Since 1950, 494 fugitives have been placed on the list. 463 of them have been caught or located. That’s a success rate of around 94%. Not too shabby. And not all of them were men. Vanity Fair reports that eight infamous women have made the list over the years.

The current “Most Wanted” list is available here. You don’t need government clearance to check it out for yourself. And, yes, showing the list to citizens really does work. 152 of the 463 arrests came as a “direct result of citizen cooperation.” Go get ‘em.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

When I was a kid and I saw the ice cream man on my street, I ran toward it like a bat out of hell. Now that I’m older, my opportunities to chase the ice cream vender around the block are all too rare. Fortunately, I do have access to the next best thing: Girl Scout cookies.

I recently took delivery of a few boxes from a coworker whose daughter enlisted in the Scouts. It all got me wondering — when did this cookie tradition begin? In the old days, did Girl Scouts make the cookies themselves? And who makes ‘em now?

According to the organization’s official website, the Girl Scouts began in 1912. However it wasn’t until 1917 that one particular troop began to sell cookies as a way to pay for their activities. The Mistletoe Troop out of Muskogee, Oklahoma sold home-baked cookies in the local high school cafeteria in December of 1917. They didn’t know it then, but they were starting something very special.

As the Girl Scouts expanded, so too did the sales of cookies. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, young girls, with the help of their mothers, baked sugar cookies to sell. In 1936, according to the Scouts, the national organization “began the process to license the first commercial baker to produce cookies that would be sold by girls in Girl Scout councils.” Interestingly, sales of the cookies stopped during World War II, due to a national shortage of flour, butter, and sugar.

These days, Girl Scout Cookies are sold all over the country, especially the ever-popular Thin Mints. They account for roughly 25% of all Girl Scout Cookie sales. In second place — the caramel and coconut-flavored Samoas with a formidible 19%. Two big bakeries churn out the cookies for the Girl Scouts: ABC Bakers and Little Brownie Bakers.

Got a favorite flavor? What about requests for future varieties? I’ve always wondered why they don’t sell chocolate chip cookies. Seems like a rather odd omission…

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Anyone who has seen “Mary Poppins” might think that “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is the longest word in the English language. And, if it were a real word, it might be the longest. But gibberish does not a word make. So, what is the “real” longest word in English? Let’s consult our old all-knowing friend, the Web.

A quick Yahoo! search on “longest word in English language” led me to this page from the Oxford Dictionary. The language enthusiasts listed a slew of candidates for the longest word in the English language. Some contenders: radioimmunoelectrophoresis (length: 26 letters; definition: no clue, but probably something medical), floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters; “the estimation of something as valueless“), and antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters; “opposition to the withdrawal of state support or recognition from an established church“).

All hilariously long words, but according to the Oxford Dictionary, one word trumps ‘em all: the little used “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.” That’s 45 letters, kids. Dictionary.com explains that it refers to “a lung disease caused by silica dust.” The word is, thankfully, quite obscure, so some might argue that it doesn’t count. However, Oxford explains that the word (which I refuse to re-type) is included in its dictionaries. So, I say the title belongs to it.

How about the longest English word that’s only one syllable? Again, I turned to the Oxford Dictionary, and it didn’t let me down. Apparently, there are several nine-letter words that hold the record. They are, in no particular order of loquaciousness: screeched, scratched, scrounged, scrunched, stretched, straights, and strengths.

Phew, got all that? Do you guys have a favorite word you like to drop in conversations to make you seem smart? Whenever I’m looking to impress somebody I like to haughtily say the word “thus” whenever making my point. When I want to be passive aggressive, I drop the word “actually” as often as possible. Got any other tricks for impressing and annoying others with language? Please leave a comment below. And thus, you will be heard.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Advanced search changes

We’ve reacted to your feedback to make a few additional changes that now allow you to add parameters to the URL, to allow you to better sort your search result. In order to do this, here are the bits of code you’ll need to add to the end of your URL to sort your results:

&orderby=+date (to sort by most recent)

&orderby=-date (to sort by oldest)

For example a search for “dogs” produces this URL: http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result?p=dogs

If you want to sort by the most recent results, 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 heard from the community that search terms within quotation marks (”and”) were returning no results.  We’ve adjusted the system so that this no longer is the case, and “and” now produces results.

Additional 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

Thanks for your continued feedback on our latest release, and, for helping to improve Yahoo! Answers!

Photo by GonchoA

Ahh, March. If you’re a college basketball fan, this time of the year means one thing to you: March Madness. For many, part of getting ready for the season means preparing your bracket, and getting your “picks” together. For some, this is all just fun and games, but for others, it’s a science. And, this science even has a name: “bracketology.”

It’s the science of picking winners and knowing who will be the last team standing in the end. Whether you believe in the science of it all, or, are just in it for the game, there are loads of resources popping up on the web this year making it easier for you to stay in touch with your fantasy picks and favorite teams, including Yahoo! Sports “Tourney Pick’em” fantasy sports bracket. (And, this year you can win up to a million dollars if you end up with a perfect bracket!)

Online selections open on Sunday, March 14^th and close Thursday, March 18^th, but you can start creating a pool of your favorite Answers friends, college buddies, or office mates now while you wait for the tournament field to be announced on the 14^th.

Or, if you’re looking to meet a few fellow Yahoo! Answers users who also love basketball, you’re welcome to join our bracket, found here.

Need some last minute tips and information on this year’s teams from Kansas and Kentucky? Don’t forget to check out the Basketball category on Answers in addition to the NCAA section on Rivals But remember– if you’re asking specifically about your fantasy picks, be sure to place your questions in the appropriate category: Fantasy Sports.

Good luck!

Whenever I can’t sleep (thankfully a rare occurrence, I’m only half awake right now), I imagine myself skiing down a giant mountain without a care in the world. Usually I’m snoring my head off in no time. Conventional wisdom says you should “count sheep” when you need some shut eye. How in the world did this get started?

In a way it makes sense. When you can’t sleep, it’s likely because you’re stressed out or distracted about something. What better way to stop focusing on your worries than by doing something totally monotonous, like, say, counting sheep. A video from the Bay Area’s CBS 5 explains that this does work for some people.

But why sheep and not lions or frogs or labradoodles? The experts at The Word Detective speculate that the tradition dates back to “at least the mid-19th century.” The Phrase Finder actually goes a step further, finding a quote from 1854 that may have started the tradition. In “Way Down East,” by Seba Smith, the author writes, “He shut his eyes with all his might, and tried to think of sheep jumping over a wall.”

Another blog from Haaretz.com, an Israeli newspaper, sites a book called “Illustrations of Political Economy” by Harriet Martineau. In the book, she writes, “It was a sight of monotony to behold one sheep after another follow the adventurous one… the recollection of the scene of transit served to send the landowner to sleep more than once, when occurring at the end of the train of anxious thoughts which had kept him awake.”

There is another, non literary, theory for why we count sheep. According to an article from The New York Times, “some authorities think it may have to do with a tallying system devised by shepherds in ancient Britain.” And, interestingly, a study mentioned in the same article found that folks who were told to count sheep in an effort to fall asleep actually took longer. People who pictured a relaxing scene like a beach fell asleep “an average of 20 minutes sooner than they did on other nights.”

Got any of your own tips on falling asleep quickly? Please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

In addition to this, Yahoo! Answers also has something called the “Best of Answers” module. This rotating module featured on the Answers homepage showcases some of the quirky and interesting content that we come across on the Answers site. Typically this content is handpicked by a combination of Yahoo! Answers team members and editorial team members who surf the site looking for interesting questions that might pique your interest.

In addition to the “Best of Answers” module, every so often, a question from Answers is also featured on the Front Page of Yahoo—visible to literally millions of Yahoo! users in a single day.

We know that each day, each of you, come across potentially hundreds of interesting, quirky, and fantastic questions that YOU consider “the best of Answers”—so we want to see them!

What’s the catch, and what are the rules?

• Questions must have been asked and answered within the last 3 months – freshness matters!
• No questions containing profanity, obscenity, relating to sex, alcohol, etc.
• Questions must follow the Community Guidelines
• Answers should be thorough and complete and should NOT be plagiarized. Here’s an example of a good question and answer: Is eating the inside of an orange peel good for you?
  
• Question and answer should be relatively free from typos and grammatical errors

What do I get if my question is picked?

If we select your question and feature it on either the Yahoo! Front Page or in the “Best of Answers” module, we’ll award whoever suggested the question to us, 100 extra points on Answers.

Ok, so where do I submit my questions?

Think you have a winner on your hands? Submit your questions to us via email at: y_answrs_favorites@yahoo.com

If we select your question, we’ll send you an email notifying you that your question has been selected and you should see the bonus points in your account shortly.

We can’t wait to see what types of questions you send our way, so start searching the site, scouring your watchlist, and sharing your favorites with the team!

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next paranoid nutcase. And, if you ask me, few conspiracy theories are as juicy as Area 51. That’s the infamous location believed to be near Roswell, New Mexico, (but is actually located closer to Las Vegas, Nevada) where many believe the U.S. government has proof that UFOs exist.

Like all good conspiracy theories, the lack of definitive evidence is beside the point. After all, if there was proof, there wouldn’t be a conspiracy, right? No, what’s cool about Area 51 are the theories and explanations. Heck, even the name “Area 51″ is bit steeped in secrecy.

According to HowStuffWorks.com, one theory surrounding the name “Area 51″ is more popular than the rest. The facility apparently borders the Nevada Test Site (NTS), a testing ground for atomic bombs. The NTS divided this land into a grid, numbered one to 30. The theory states that Area 51 (while not part of the actual grid), borders on Area 15. “Many say the site got the name Area 51 by transposing the 1 and 5 of its neighbor.” Side note: not everybody called it Area 51. Some higher-ups called it “Paradise Ranch” in an effort to make it sound more appealing to military employees who didn’t want to leave their families for weeks at a time.

The debate over Area 51 started back in 1947 after “something” crashed near Roswell. In the years since, news agencies like the Los Angeles Times and ABC have interviewed former employees about what really went down. One ex-engineer, Thornton “T.D.” Barnes, used to work on spy planes, one of which traveled at 2,000 mph. As it zoomed through the sky, the plane would cause light flashes. He believes that’s how the rumors of E.T. and ALF living at Area 51 got their start.

What do you guys think about Area 51 and aliens? Is the government hiding something? Personally, I have my doubts. I just don’t think the government would be able to keep a big secret for so long. Disagree? Feel free to write a comment below.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Through the new search experience, you’ll notice a new, re-designed layout on your search results page, making it easier to refine your search without having to leave the page.

The new answers search page

1- We’ve  taken all of the options which were previously available in Advanced Search and moved them to the left-hand-side of this page to make it easier to customize your search queries.

2 - The category dropdown has been re-structured to fit this new design.

3- For those of you who perform the same search regularly, we’ve also thought of you: : we’ve replaced the “Make this my default search option” with the “My Saved Search” feature.  “My Saved Search” allows you to save your favorite search so you can easily access the results from anywhere on Yahoo! Answers.  By checking this box Answers will store your most frequent searches.  You can then click on the “My Saved Search” link next to the “Search Answers” button to access your saved search from wherever you are on the site.

You can find out more about making the most of `My Saved Search` by checking out this help article.

As with all of the changes we’re making at the moment we’d love to hear your feedback.  Leave us a comment here on the blog or on the feedback thread on the Suggestion board.