March 08, 2007 | Thursday

Yahoo Answers Adds Social Networking

By Jon Myers, Director Of Search in Search Engines |Yahoo |Search Technology

Yahoo Answers, the question & answer social media exchange, has become a success for Yahoo, bringing the phenomena of social knowledge sharing to over 90 million worldwide Yahoo Answers users.

Now Yahoo has taken Yahoo Answers to the next level, adding Social Networking capability to the Yahoo Answers interface, where users can connect and ‘make friends’ with other Yahoo Answers members who share similar interests and backgrounds, Answers Network BETA.

Yahoo Answers, with the ‘flick of a switch’, has now become the Answers Network and in terms of social network size, is now one of the largest social networks online. Yes, Yahoo Answers now rivals MySpace and Facebook in terms of International reach and active member numbers.

But size is not all the Answers Network is about, it’s about niche social networking and in the tradition of other Yahoo social properties like MyBlogLog, Flickr’s “Contacts” and del.icio.us’ “Your Network”, the Yahoo! Answers Network Beta is working to enhance the overall user experience by helping people connect to the information they care about most through others with similar interests.