LiveSide - News blog : QnA

MSN QnA Beta Is Closing On May 21st

Sunshine — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:28:04 GMT

All things come to an end, same goes for the QnA beta. The team just announced the end of the beta and the closing of the QnA site:

We are ending the QnA beta test and are closing the QnA site on May 21, 2009.

First and foremost, we want to thank you for your participation. Since we introduced QnA, we’ve learned a lot about this new way of communicating and creating valuable content. At this time, we are closing the QnA site, but the experience of running QnA and gathering all of the great feedback you’ve shared with us will certainly influence future product direction.

When QnA moved from the Live Search organization into MSN we announced that we'd be looking for new ways to share questions and answers across MSN and provide new opportunities for you to engage with each other and share your opinions, ideas, and knowledge. That mission has not changed. Questions and answers are still important to MSN and your feedback has been very valuable for our future product strategy. You’ll see more ways of how MSN will empower people to connect and communicate over the coming months.

QnA has been a wonderful opportunity for us to learn from you, and closing the site is a sad occasion for those of us who worked hard to create this site and build this community. Again, we thank all of our wonderful contributors for your participation. It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of the community that we all created together. See you on MSN!

-QnA Team

In their blog post you can find information on how to stay in touch with your QnA friends. Furthermore they point out that you can ask questions, get answers, and have discussions on a variety of topics in the message boards throughout MSN; Airfares & Travel, Autos, City Guides, Games, Health & Fitness, Lifestyle, Money, Movies, Music, Real Estate, Tech & Gadgets and TV. You can do so with the same account you used for the QnA message boards. Windows 7 Beta and RC users can now ask their questions on Microsoft Answers.

Previous articles about QnA

From Windows Live to Live Search to MSN: QnA Updated

damaster — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 01:17:27 GMT

We reported almost a month ago that QnA is moving from Live Search to MSN. Today the QnA team officially announced the latest updates to the QnA website, including a new look for QnA with the standardised MSN headers. Here’s a snapshot of what’s been changed:

Added new MSN branding

Added new question-type selection feature (for conversational or informational questions)

Update to the QnA Beta Supplement to the Code of Conduct

Update to the spell checker

As you can see in the screenshot, QnA has been officially updated with the (new?) green MSN header. The layout hasn’t been modified heavily though and it remains pretty much the same as before. What really frustrates us though is that the link to MSN QnA is still via http://qna.live.com . Typing http://qna.msn.com in the address bar will not get you to the website. Microsoft, if you’re ever going to rebrand something, please make sure the URL does the change too.

In terms of functionality, what has changed though in this update is that you no longer have to tag your conversational questions as “conversational”, you will now be able to select the type of the question being asked when you post the question, as shown below:

It is said that the spell checker has also been updated to include additional words to its dictionary.

For more information on how to determine whether a question is conversational or informational, refer to QnA’s team blog. I expect they’ll move the Spaces address soon to something without the "live” in its name.

QnA moves from Live Search to MSN

Sunshine — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:54:56 GMT

In an attempt to better align products and sites focused on content and community, QnA moved from Live Search to MSN. Leader of the MSN QnA team will be Kristy:

Kristy

Hello! I’m Kristy and I’m excited to be leading the MSN QnA team.

After years working as an Executive Producer, Manager and Community Promotions Director for a large Internet company, I joined Microsoft in the Silicon Valley to continue working in the Web Industry and remain in the Bay Area (I’m a California native). That was 5 years ago. Since then, I’ve shipped MSN Radio Applications, TV Listings and Recording Services and Media Discovery features. And, for the past 2 years, I’ve been leading teams developing community features for MSN. I see QnA as a fabulous community to be part of MSN. Community is important to me. I’m eager to explore how we can continue to evolve and improve the experience in ways that help grow a healthy, vibrant community.

I’ve learned a lot from what you, the QnA community, have posted in questions, answers and the Message Boards. I’ll always be on the lookout for good, constructive input and you may even see me ask questions about feature ideas from time to time.

According to Kristy there’s never been a better time for QnA to be part of MSN. So what does this mean to the future of QnA? For starters the site will be rebranded to a new MSN brand (hmm, what will it be this time?), and with the next release there will be changes to how QnA handles “Conversational” versus “Informational” questions. More information can be found in the announcement on the QnA Team blog.

Live QnA can be found at http://qna.live.com, surely this addy will change in the future. Most likely the Team Blog address too as they are shaking off live in the name.

Changes to the QnA Code of Conduct

Sunshine — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:05:58 GMT

The Live QnA Code of Conduct has been updated so it’s easier to understand.

Summary of Changes

One of the first changes we made was to make it clear that the QnA Code of Conduct Supplement is just that - a supplement to the standard Code of Conduct. In order to understand the guidelines for QnA you need to read both the Code of Conduct and the QnA supplement.

Conversational Tag

The QnA Supplement now states that conversational questions must be tagged: Conversational. Please refer to the Conversational Question blog to learn more.

Mature Content

In keeping with Microsoft Policy, we are narrowing the type of mature content that is allowed on the site. In fact, most content of a sexual nature is not allowed even if it’s tagged as mature content.

Using Multiple Accounts

We have now made it clear that you are not allowed to ask questions with one account and answer the same question with another account.

More detailed information and the QnA CoC Supplement Text can be found here. In that blog post the QnA Team also answers questions about the moderating process.

Did you know: Your QnA nickname is now specifically for use on QnA

Live QnA Blog

Conversational Questions Now Allowed On QnA

Sunshine — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:09:56 GMT

QnA was originally designed to provide quality answers to search engines, Live Search in particular, but the Community wants and needs more than informational questions. So based on feedback from the QnA Community, the team has decided to make it possible for you to easily ask and see the types of questions you are personally interested in. This isn’t going to happen overnight but they have already opened up the site for a broader range of questions. Effective immediately “Conversational” questions will be allowed on the site as long as you tag them with the word conversational.

What is a Conversational Question

To help you in understanding what a conversational question is we've divided the types of questions into two broad categories - Conversational and Informational.

In general, when you’re seeking social interaction and sharing, that’s Conversational. It’s important to note that Conversational is more than just “chat.” You can be looking to gain knowledge and information through a conversational question… the key difference is that you don’t need the information to help you make a decision or accomplish a task.

Conversational questions include:

Plain old curiosity

You’re taking the “pulse” of the community (just to see what people think)

Political, religious, philosophical, and other debates

Sharing personal news

Jokes and other fun

Any question to or about another QnA member

Speculation

When you’re looking for a factual answer or for opinions that will help you accomplish a task or make a decision, that’s Informational.

When you ask an informational question we recommend that in the question details you include the task that you’re trying to accomplish or the decision you’re trying to make. That will help you get better, more useful answers, and it will lessen the chance that the community will misunderstand your intent and report your question for abuse.

Informational questions include:

Fact finding

Product recommendations to help you decide on a purchase

Technical support to help you get something to work properly

Advice to help you decide what to do

When in doubt of the type of question you are asking it’s best to tag it conversational.

Note: Other than allowing chats and discussions under the Conversational question umbrella the Code of Conduct remains intact.

More information on How to Ask and Tag a Conversational Question can be found on the QnA Team Blog, specifically in this post. If you have comments or questions about Conversational questions please post them on this thread in the QnA forum.

Live QnA
Live QnA Forum

Live QnA: About The Latest Updates To QnA

Sunshine — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:45:07 GMT

So Live Search QnA has updated, but what exactly changed? Let me recap the rather large QnA Team post:

You now get 1 QnA point for voting again
No more deduction of a point for abuse reports that get overturned
NEW feature: Show violations page
If your content gets removed/moderated you will now be able to see why. After you click "Find out why," you'll be taken to a page that shows you your recent issues.
NEW link “Latest Questions” has been added to the menu for quick access to the latest questions
Question titles expanded to 100 characters in list views so they won’t be cut off anymore
Question state graphical icons returned (Open for Answers, Open for Voting, Closed)
“Show question” page improved:
Better use of space, more of the key content towards the top of the page. New interface for easier differentiation between “add answer” & “add comment”. Navigational links at both the top and bottom.
Ask question experience has improved by lay out improvements:
Better use of space, more of the key content “above the fold”, “related questions” module has been moved to the right.
NEW: Firefox 3 support for all major functionality on the site

Besides these there are additional minor fixes and other requested improvements are under investigation. If you have feedback on this release then the team would like to hear from you in their QnA message board thread: “Your Feedback on the QnA release 7/22”

Live Search QnA

Live QnA: Next Release On July 22nd PDT, Site Down For Maintenance In The Afternoon

Sunshine — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:59:45 GMT

Live Search QnA, yes it still exists and still in beta form. Beta means there is still room for improvement and as such there will be a new release on the 22nd. In this release you should see several improvements made, all because of your feedback!

Beta means, above all, that this service is still evolving. We're exploring options to improve your experience with the service and community; your feedback is important to help us make the right choices. As an online service, we can try out new things and respond to your ideas to try out new and interesting things.

Unfortunately, part of the fact that we’re a beta site and still testing means that not everything we try works perfectly...

You’ve definitely made that known to us, and we’re working to make things better. After all, this is our site, “our” including you, the users of QnA we hold near and dear to our hearts; we take your feedback very seriously, and we’re taking steps to address the problems you face as you use the site day by day.

Speaking of which, our next release is coming tomorrow so we’d like to give you an advance notice that the QnA site will be down for maintenance tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday, July 22nd PDT time zone).

Full story

Minor Spaces update, and more from Windows Live blogs

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 02 May 2008 22:50:44 GMT

The Space Craft, blog of the Windows Live Spaces team, just announced a minor upgrade to Spaces: you can now include the Messenger IM control and SkyDrive files in the Custom HTML module using embed codes. Some back end changes have been made to Spaces as well, “to make the service faster and more reliable”.

Two other Windows Live product teams have posted recently, too: the Live QnA blog posted Tuesday on their “new and improved refresh”, which they are apparently calling their “Renaissance release”. Of course we pointed out the refresh to you already, but the Live QnA blog goes deeper into the list of improvements (paraphrased here):

Improved Live ID signup experience
Redesigned registration page, including a required agreement to the Code of Conduct
Improved site promotion, including the MSN Election Channel, and Live Search results pages (more to come)
New look and feel
Improved site navigation and tag content
Recognition for top contributors (with high best answers to total answers ratio)

You can read more on the Live QnA (might want to change that to Live Search QnA) blog, or visit http://qna.live.com.

Then, on the Live Search blog, the Live Search Product team announced their new release, including:

One stop to research product details and find good prices You see an image and description for each product, reviews from other users, prices to help you find good deals, and spec sheets for many products.

Feature-based refinements See which products are reviewed positively or negatively for the features that interest you. View product features such as screen size, battery life, ease of use, and portability.

Sorting Sort product results by user ratings, expert ratings, and price.

Filtering Filter product results by specific brands, categories, and price ranges.

Richer product details Read expert reviews and a spec sheet describing the product.

Product search has also been added to Live Search Mobile (at http://m.live.com – and don’t forget about http://m.liveside.net! Did you know that you can access LiveSide on your iPhone at http://m.liveside.net/iPhone?), along with some more improvements to mobile search.

Live Search changes: QnA joins in

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 01:59:00 GMT

Update: Looks like qna.live.com is joining the party, with a new look, too, this one in keeping with the green and blue theme (thanks, AndyD):

We’re noticing some other changes, as well, although they seem to come and go. See anything new? Let us know in the comments.

Windows Live QnA - remember them?

Kip Kniskern — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:02:42 GMT

Hey there's a new posting on the Windows Live QnA blog! Except for one post with just a picture of a heart in October, there hasn't been a post since August of last year. Anyway, The post introduces "new" Senior Lead Program Manager, Heather Friedland, who says:

I’ll keep my first posting here brief but I wanted to respond to a few questions I’ve seen crop up on the QnA site lately.

Question #1, “What is the future of QnA?” One of the reasons why you haven’t heard from us on the team blog is because we are in meetings all day long, researching and debating the next set of features for the QnA site. In this release, we hope to address and make improvements from the feedback we’ve seen around key problems and scenarios. While you may not always hear it from us, we do actively read and monitor the feedback we get from the QnA community to help us prioritize the fixes and features that would best improve your experiences moving forward.

And, in answer to Question #2, “Is there even a QnA team at Microsoft?” Yup – there is, indeed, a QnA team at Microsoft hard at work in the Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, California.

In case you don't remember, QnA is the Windows Live "answer" to Yahoo! Answers, initially touted as a way to build a database of answers to questions not easily found by Live Search. Yeah we see how well that's going. Well at least the team is hard at work in meetings everyday.

Windows Live QnA experiences problems

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 21:44:00 GMT

A heads up for those of you who use Windows Live QnA beta - apparently it's experiencing some difficulties at the moment:

(from the QnA blog)
Hi folks,
The QnA site is currently encountering problems, as many of you have undoubtedly noticed. Please know that the QnA team is aware of the issues and is actively investigating. We hope to have things rectified as soon as possible.
We thank you for your patience and understanding!
-DavidB, QnA Program Manager

A quick check of the site shows it up and running (although the link on the MSN Home Page didn't seem to work), although there were numerous posts on problems with the site, and clicking through to a number (but not all) posts returned "couldn't find this question". We'll keep you posted.

Update: As of 6:30pm pdt (gmt -8) this evening, the qna team posted that things are getting better, but to keep hitting F5 if you don't get a page you're looking for.

QnA 3rd (but far behind) in US Market Share: Hitwise

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 12:30:21 GMT

Hitwise Research Director Leann Prescott has posted the first real stats we've seen on question and answer site market share, and although Windows Live QnA is in third place, Yahoo! Answers is far ahead in the race with 96.1% US Market share.

While the blog entry does not detail what this means in terms of actual numbers, it's clear that QnA has a lot of ground to make up. We'll be watching how these numbers evolve.

Google Answers closes, only 800 participants

Chris — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 01:30:00 GMT

Straight from the Google blog is the new that Google Answers is closing down, with the acceptance of new questions stop later this week. The surprising admission that they only had about 800 users replying to questions in 4 years of operation does not make this any less of a blow to the company, who downplay Answers to being just a "great experiment". In comparison, competitor services such as Yahoo Answers and Windows Live QnA seem to be flourishing.

Yahoo Answers has recently undergone a large advertising campaign in the UK, and has heavily promoted celebrity questions both here and in the USA. Currently they have Oprah asking the question "If you were given $1,000 to change the life of a perfect stranger, what would you do?" with the number of answers standing at over 33,000 at the time of posting.

QnA is less established, but one that seems to be building a solid community. Unlike Google Answers, which was not promoted on Google.com, QnA is linked on the Windows Live Search homepage, driving users to the service. The QnA modules that can be added to Windows Live Spaces have also helped with its growth, but a lack of rewards for top users may become an issue as the service develops.

Of course this doesn't have much effect on the current search rankings, (Live Search share drops) but it has reinforced the idea that social search is perhaps Google's biggest weakness.

Update: Minor correction made clarifying what the figure of "more than 800" refers to.

QnA adds and improves; Local turns Japanese; a note on VE 3d

Kip Kniskern — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 11:44:00 GMT

Word is out from Betsy about some new features over at Windows Live QnA, including a new browse page for tags, a new question page interface, the initiation of a content rating system, an email a question to a friend feature, and some improvements to the interface with Live Search. Check out the post on the Live QnA team blog.

Local.live.com has some 2D news as well as the big news in 3D, a localized Japanese version of the site. According to the Virtual Earth blog:

Features include:

Road, aerial and hybrid maps, with high-res aerial coverage for most major metro areas
Yellow page based local search
Full support for collections
Locally developed street address geocoder with rooftop accuracy for about 30 million Japanese addresses

To get the localized language, go to http://local.live.com/?mkt=ja-jp. (You can get back to English by changing the market back: http://local.live.com/?mkt=en-us).

And while our esteemed LiveSide colleagues introduce you to the finer points of map controls and hosting VE on a Sharepoint Server, I've been having fun just zooming around in VE 3d. For a camping enthusiast like me, it's as much fun to check out Mt. St. Helens in 3d as it is to cruise downtown Detroit. Remember that even though only 15 cities are currently represented in 3d, the whole Virtual Earth is a 3d Spaceland! Enjoy!

Amazon launches QnA rival

Chris — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 03:29:00 GMT

If you were in any doubt as to which way most of the big internet portals think search is going, Amazon has made it crystal clear; Askville, Amazon's new social search service, has launched into beta in competition with the likes of Yahoo Answers and Windows Live QnA. Since South Korean search engine Naver first showed the way to dethroning Google, social search has become a key battleground.

Cameron Marlow notes the main differences between Askville and the existing sites:

"Probably the most significant change is the flow of the question/answering exchange. In Yahoo! Answers, and elsewhere, answers are shown publicly as they are received; in Askville, answers are hidden to the public until 5 answers have been received. Any discussion or clarification can happen in a public message board attached to the question. After 5 answers have been collected, the group of asker and answerers vote and the whole thing is made public.

Askville rewards users with “coins,” a virtual currency that will be redeemable in another community named Questville slated for release in early 2007."

The most notable advantage Askville has over Windows Live QnA is the presence of a rewards system - not many people choose to work for free, which is why a Live Points system is a urgent requirement for QnA. Gold stars can only encourage users so much.

With Amazon's S3 taking the initiative over the yet to be released Live Drive, it will be interesting to see how Askville does against the more established QnA.

Cameron also has some Askville beta invites :)