page_title: Yahoo! Answers
section_title: Yamster
hierarchical_section_title: Yahoo! Answers / Promotions and events / Yamster
caption_attribution_description: English: Yahoo! Answers green smiley
context_page_description: Yahoo! Answers is a community-driven question-and-answer website, or knowledge market, from Yahoo! that allows users to submit questions and answer questions from other users.
context_section_description: The official Yahoo! Answers mascot is a cartoon hamster called Yamster. Yamster is a combination, or portmanteau, of the words "Yahoo" and "hamster". The mascot is also used as an avatar for Yahoo! Answers staff.
  During beta testing of Yahoo! Answers in 2005, the Director of Product Management would use a Gemmy Kung Fu Hamster to summon employees to meetings. The toy was a battery-operated, dancing, musical plush hamster clothed in a karate uniform. A Yahoo! Answers employee selected a photo of the toy as the staff avatar. A user then questioned the potential trademark/copyright infringement of using such an avatar. At that time, the photo was replaced with the Yahoo! Answers green smiley face. At the beginning of 2006, the green smiley face was replaced by the cartoon Yamster clad in a karate uniform. As of November 2009, the history of Yamster, complete with photos of the toy, was available on the Yahoo! Answers Team Vietnam blog.
caption: The Yahoo! Answers green smiley.
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