Yahoo! Messenger gets new emoticons

[Jeff]

The ubiquitous emoticon, or smiley, turned 25 this year. As you may recall, Yahoo! held a contest to comemorate this anniversary, inviting everyone to send in a photo of themselves composing a "new" emoticon with their own face. The winners would be immortalized as brand-new emoticons in Yahoo! Messenger.

Well, the winning entries have been announced! There are six new emoticons in Yahoo! Messenger, all submitted by users, and here they are:

• :-bd Two thumbs up!
• ^#(^ It wasn't me!
• :!! Hurry up!
• \m/ Rock on!
• :-q Thumbs down!
• X_X Don't want to see!
• :bz Bee!

All six of the new emoticons are available in the new Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 Beta. Congratulations to each of the winners! If you'd like to see what they look like in real life, read Sarah Bacon's post over on the Yahoo! Messenger Blog.

[Fanatic]

Don't forget the bee! :bz

[JR88]

It seems to me you can add all the emoticons you want but have you ever been in a chat room and had to deal with all the bots? It has become real bad the last few days. The new sign in has done nothing to relieve this problem.

[Jeff]

JR88, I agree, but you have to also realize that a LOT of people don't use Yahoo! Messenger for chat rooms. They only use if for instant messaging. For them, the bots really aren't a problem.

I'd be interested to find out what percentage of Yahoo! Messenger users visit Yahoo! chat rooms on a regular basis. I'll bet they are a small minority.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Jeff

JR88, I agree, but you have to also realize that a LOT of people don't use Yahoo! Messenger for chat rooms. They only use if for instant messaging. For them, the bots really aren't a problem.

I'd be interested to find out what percentage of Yahoo! Messenger users visit Yahoo! chat rooms on a regular basis. I'll bet they are a small minority.

Heh, I'm one of those YM users who don't use chat rooms, only IM, thank you very much.

[Fanatic]

I don't use the chat rooms either. I'll bet less than 10% of users do.

EDIT: I've created a poll to find out. Click here to participate.

[Yahooligan]

I like the two thumbs up and I don't wanna see emoticons. And the bee!

Yeah, these little things may not be important, but they are fun. I doubt they take much time or effort to develop, so it really doesn't take away from the more important things. And if you don't want to use them, you don't have to.

[patndoris]

SweetIM, nor any smiley application, is ever one I recommend putting on a user's machine. They can cause conflicts and infiltrate so far in a machine they are a real hassle to remove.

I strongly recommend NOT installing SweetIM unless you want to deal with the hassle that follows.

[youngistaanblog]

i think old are the best.