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Got a new emoticon for us?

June 28, 2007 on 7:23 pm | In Features, Fun Stuff | 81 Comments

Time to get those creative juices flowing – the Yahoo! Messenger Emoticontest is here! Got a great idea for a new emoticon? Is there an expression or feeling that you always wish was an emoticon? Now’s your chance to bring that emoticon to life in the next version of Yahoo! Messenger.

To participate, just submit a photo of your emoticon idea to our contest. Remember we’re looking for new emoticon ideas, not your imitation of ones that already exist. You can see our full list of existing emoticons here.

Plus, be sure to vote on the ones you’d like to see in our next version. We’re using Bix.com, Yahoo’s online contest service to power the contest, and they offer some easy tools to help you submit your emoticon idea and vote for your favorite entries in face-off style.

We’re running this contest in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the Emoticon, invented by Professor Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University. “When I first proposed the smiley face symbol, I never thought it would take off the way it has,” said Professor Fahlman.

“It started as a way to indicate humor — or attempted humor — among a small, local community of computer researchers. It has been fascinating to watch this small but infectious idea spread into new communities as the Internet has matured.” Read more about the birth of the emoticon on Scott’s website.

Happy Anniversary to the emoticon!

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

81 Comments »

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  1. An interesting idea. I’m sure any new emoticons that are made will make it into Mac messenger within the next 3+ years. That seems to be the average turnover rate between releases.

    Comment by Adam — June 28, 2007 #

  2. You do all these great things for windows… It shows Yahoo doesn’t care much for Macintosh users!

    I use yahoo! answers daily… half of my yahoo related answers are explaining that yahoo messenger for the mac doesn’t do this or that!

    Comment by Jake — June 28, 2007 #

  3. wow..25th Anniversary :d TIme To Celebrate \:d/ YahoO

    Comment by VaaSU — June 28, 2007 #

  4. how about a dancing elvis (1970s jumpsuit style)

    Comment by kevin — June 28, 2007 #

  5. YEA I HAVE GOT A GREAT IDEA HOW ABOUT A STABLE CHAT ROOMS AND SERVERS !!!! I THINK THERE ARE MUCH MORE IMPORTENT THINGS TO DO THEN IMOTIONS

    Comment by padric — June 29, 2007 #

  6. Can you make one that is angry, confused, sitting in front of a Mac.. wondering WHERE THE NEXT MAC BETA IS??

    Oh another one.. make a surprise face that pops up in the middle of the screen as soon as Yahoo randomly logs you off for no apparent reason! Another good one for the random log offs.. make a group of emoticons that pop up.. looking confused as to where their friends just went.. and wonderin why they left without saying goodbye!

    LMAO!!! You want new emoticons… I think Yahoo needs to set its priorities straight. Why dont we think of new ones as a celebration after the NEW VERSIONS are released!!

    Comment by Jeremy — June 29, 2007 #

  7. I just wait for new emoticons :-D

    Comment by BBrz — June 29, 2007 #

  8. so we dtill need to finish this contest before they release the new version (ym! for vista).?

    mingz.

    Comment by mingz — June 29, 2007 #

  9. [...] ha lanzado un concurso entre los usuarios para encontrar nuevas ideas para emoticonos distintos de los que existen [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo! Messenger Emoticontest — June 29, 2007 #

  10. Ohh yea lets think about new emoticons, yahoo messenger working perfect, there are no boots in chat rooms, we can get in to chat rooms without any delay, servers are perfectly running , so lets have fun with new emoticons, someone have to tell yahoo staff to take off their pink glasses pleassseeee !!!!!

    Comment by padric — June 29, 2007 #

  11. I agree with Padric. Considering we have yet to see you guys live up to all your promises to stablize Y!IM and the chat-rooms, I think the last thing you guys should be worrying about at these stupid, pointless, useless emoticons! Fulfill the promises you made to the users first, THEN waste your time and resources with these useless persuits.

    Comment by Janus — June 29, 2007 #

  12. I can’t draw or I’d try. But Yahoo Messenger desperately needs a “rocker” emoticon. Fingers of one hand making the devil horn gesture, and head banging back and forth!

    Comment by N — June 29, 2007 #

  13. alright alright..u folks have made enough noise about yahoo chat rooms and the mac version of messenger..now take a break..its getting sick hearing this whining over and over again.. be thankful for what u have guys!

    Comment by Thom — June 29, 2007 #

  14. Uh, I don’t think it’s whining when the PC users have better features and Mac users take it on the chin. It is now the end of June and we still don’t have beta 2 on this new version of messenger. I’d say quit fussing about the imoticons and get busy getting the Mac version of the software more stable (and in final form). It certainly can’t be that far off from being ready. Can’t they just get it out there so Mac users can test out the software and report back what changes need to be made? After all, its “us” that uses the software regulary.

    Comment by Appleuser — June 29, 2007 #

  15. This is ridiculous! No one cares about a new emoticon, fix the chat rooms first. I can get into a chat room MAYBE 1 of 50 tries, and when I do it’s overrun with bots. You said these issues were being taken care of, now take care it it and quit trying to create something new before the old is fixed!!!

    Comment by Parry Hotter — June 29, 2007 #

  16. Normally Thom, I’d agree with you. I really would. However, our complaints have gone unheeded time and time again, and now things are at a point where what we have is WORSE than what it was before. And as for the Mac and Vista users, it’s certainly appauling that for all the time they’ve been asking for a IM program with features similar to XP users that all they get is beta versions, if even that.

    It’s really pathetic that whenever there’s issues with the old that Yahoo!, in all their questionable wisedom, see fit to add new crap on that no one wants. And by useless crap I’m refering to tool bar, emoticons, plug-ins, ect. Seriously, with all the time and reasources they pour into that garbage, I’m sure they could finally fix the chat rooms, create a more stable program, and get final versions out for Macs and Vistas.

    Comment by Janus — June 29, 2007 #

  17. Here’s an emoticon for you. How about one flipping a bird? It should be very popular with the many frustrated messenger users right now. Of course, I have the feeling that Yahoo has already been using this one in response to all the complaints.
    Please just fix the issues that are currently annoying the users. We don’t need any new emoticons right now.

    Comment by Gary — June 29, 2007 #

  18. Sarah ..just a quick question …When the moral of all yur users is at an all time low due to the problems getting into chatrooms and the fact that it is the end of june and nuthin has changed is this really the best timing for an emoticon contest ?

    Comment by steve — June 29, 2007 #

  19. people need to get a grip and stop stressing sarah out.

    take part in the emotion contest. Cant wait to see new emotions all these ones are old. anyway lets party

    Comment by vb_packets — June 30, 2007 #

  20. Hi, sorry for the Off Topic, i couldn’t find a better place to post this –

    I complain about this BUG that I find so annoying: many times when Messenger 8 signs you in automatically it won’t take note of your “invisible” option and will log you in normal mode – that has put me in EMBARRASSING situations often times when I just wanted to be logged in as INVISIBLE.

    I am a big fan of y messenger and all that, like all of us here, but excuse me, what is up with that shit?? Is there a patch or something or do you fix it in the next version??

    Thanks!
    Fidelio

    Comment by Fidelio — June 30, 2007 #

  21. vb_packets, I hate to tell ya this, but won’t stop “stressing sarah out” as you put it, until she and the rest of those responsible for Y!IM finally make good on their promises. I mean it would be one thing if they can’t do what they say but then promtly inform us that there’s an issue and it’ll take longer. At least then they’re being honest with us and keeping us, their users, in the loop. But what Yahoo! has been doing thus far is making promises to fix the chat-rooms or to make the program more stable by a specified date, and when it comes around and nothing happens, they say nothing on it until literally months later, or after enough people b*tch them out.
    I guess the point I’m trying to make is that people no longer trust this Sarah person, and expect a bit of honesty from her. And of course when she and the rest of the Instant Messanger Team fails to make good on their word, as much as its not surprising anymore, people get angry. And personally, I don’t blame these people.

    Comment by Janus — June 30, 2007 #

  22. I know it was said before that off-topic comments would be deleted but obviously that didn’t deter people, so any chance that we could get comment moderated?

    Having to wade through a ton of off topic comments just to see if there are any comments relevant to the posts really is somewhat annoying for those of us who come to the blog for reasons besides complaining everytime a new blog entry is posted.

    Comment by Bobby — June 30, 2007 #

  23. Janus – Don’t blame Sarah its her job to write these blogs and what they say. Its only her choice the words she uses. Commenters needs to realise its her boss or even higher they need to be addressing.
    althow it is just easyer to blame the name “Yahoo” becouse who knows who we have to convince there is a problem.

    Personally I know Vista messenger is pioneering and I am sure problems take time to figure out, But chat rooms has been around since I started using Yahoo messenger the end of 1997. You would think they would realise how many more users they would have if they ever gave a care about it.
    Every Version of messenger since 5.6 got worse and worse with some of the most basic features of chat rooms not working anymore. Since Febuary of this year there has been only a handful of days I was evan able to enter chat rooms.

    Do something for me: Try to get into chat rooms. If you are able to on your first try in a room with less then 90% of the users in it not a bot. I will shut up!

    Comment by Chris — June 30, 2007 #

  24. Why are some emoticons kept hidden? wouldnt it be easier for the users if they could just see them with the rest of the emoticons?

    Comment by Farah — July 1, 2007 #

  25. Know what Chris, you’re right. Sarah is indeed not to blame for these problems. However, you know why people send so much flak her way? It’s because she/her bosses make promises for results and evidentally, her/their track record for these promises actually being fulfilled is rather low. And seeing how whoever her bosses are seldomly ever make an appearance her, and since she IS the product manager, people end up with little choice but to make their fustrations evident to her.

    Getting on topic, I agree with Farah. As little as I use emoticons, it would be a bit more easier and convinent to have them all listed for better avialablility. Perhaps that’s something the Y!IM team can tend to AFTER they take care of the other items on their laundry list of issues.

    Comment by Janus — July 1, 2007 #

  26. PLEASSSSSEEEEEE FIXXXXX YAHOO SERVERS AND CHAT ROOMS, ENOUGH ENOUGH, ENOUGH, CANT STAND IT ANYMORE, WHAT A WAISTING TIME TO GET INTO THE CHAT ROOMS. SOMEONE HAVE TO TAKE OVER YAHOO MESSENGER WHO KNOWS HOW TO FIX THIS

    Comment by padric — July 1, 2007 #

  27. They should just sell Yahoo to Micro$oft. Or if the issue is that they actually don’t know HOW to fix it – then by all means they should be asking someone for help!

    Comment by Parry Hotter — July 1, 2007 #

  28. Bad idea if your a chat user. If you did not know Microsoft had chat rooms that they started a pay service for untill not many people joined so they got rid of it. Thats when a bunch of other products came out with chat rooms.

    The only problem if Yahoo chat rooms were cut, Yahoo would loose a lot more users then Microsoft did since Microsoft chat was not linked to thier messenger service.

    Comment by Chris — July 1, 2007 #

  29. I have just joined the emoticontest but…are you sure somebody is watching over there ? I mean, every time I go there to only thing you can vote for are some pictures with cats (and sometimes dogs) .And those pictures aren’t even original. Some of them are really popular over the internet. So is this a real contest or is just a joke ?

    Comment by Seinfeld — July 2, 2007 #

  30. Hi Seinfeld,

    Yes, this is a real contest. Bix.com runs the voting in face-off style. So as an entry wins face-offs, it will appear more often in the voting which is why you’re seeing the animal pics. Looks like people are into voting for animal pictures.

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — July 2, 2007 #

  31. Hmmm..wait a minute.. 25th Anniversary?? You mean Yahoo has been making emocation’s for chat since 1982?? LMAO..=)) I think if I can remember.. there wer’nt even any graphical browser’s out back then, except for those IBM home computer’s that had barely a “sub browser” on it (black screen with 3 colors). Hmmm wonder what Yahoo chat was like back then

    Comment by Kevin — July 2, 2007 #

  32. Sarah – I don’t have a Mac but would they come out with support for the other version at a later date? Thats if you choose to get it sooner.

    Comment by Chris — July 2, 2007 #

  33. Hi Chris,

    Based on how the poll is written, meaning it’s one or the other, no I don’t think the application would later be made to support 10.3. So if you want it to work for 10.3, choose the “wait a bit longer” option in the poll. Thanks,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — July 2, 2007 #

  34. Dear Sarah Bacon,

    Happy Anniversary 25th to emoicon, I am so glad to joint with this program, and all the time i must be more end more take a picture with my camera, and i try to put the emoticon getting my topic.

    Best regards

    Comment by Emilia KWS — July 3, 2007 #

  35. I think that seinfeld are right… many pictures aren`t original and why are pictures with animals (cats, dogs, etc ..) Why? here stop our imagination? I don`t wanna believe that.
    I wanna know when is the last day for this emoticon competition ?
    cheers all!

    Comment by pascalin — July 3, 2007 #

  36. …ok, i have some pictures but i wanna let the people to chose if are good or not. How can i aply for this competition?

    Comment by pascalin — July 3, 2007 #

  37. I have tons and tons of emotions that everyone can share! And I never knew this was a compitition! I’m joining it!

    Comment by Lindsey — July 3, 2007 #

  38. how do I start in the compitition…. please help me out here? thanks!

    Love,
    Lindsey.

    Comment by Lindsey — July 3, 2007 #

  39. I agree Seinfeld, i havent seen any real emoticon pics either. But i did happen to see a pic of an autopsy in there…(barf) .someone really has to regulate this….and for kevins comment on how yahoo wasnt around 25yrs ago…if u bothered to read u would have learned that they meant since the first emoticon : ) not the ones you see in yahoo messenger….your emoticon for my reply should be :’(…4shame

    Comment by Tenzin — July 3, 2007 #

  40. Hi Lindsey,

    You can go right to this page to submit your photo entry:
    http://bix.yahoo.com/enter_contest.htm?cid=10872

    Thanks,

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — July 3, 2007 #

  41. Thanks Tenzin for the “autopsy” tip – we went in and removed that one.

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — July 3, 2007 #

  42. In the end , this is the emoticontest or the cutest animal contest ? I mean, the main idea of the contest ( if I got it right) is to put up an interesting face and send the photo. Or , to send a photo ,with a human, that has an interesting expression .
    But most of the time I go there I can see only pictures with animals (mostly dogs or cats) And most of them are not even original, if you do a quick search over the internet you will find plenty of copies .
    If you put together for voting a photo with a human and a photo with a cute cat or dog in 9 of 10 cases the cute animal will win. And at the end of the contest you will have the top ten photos: cute cats and dogs. So prepare to have ten new emoticons with cats and dogs.
    If the contest will finish now take a look at the winning pictures :
    http://bix.yahoo.com/entry/81767
    http://bix.yahoo.com/entry/83250
    http://bix.yahoo.com/entry/81722
    http://bix.yahoo.com/entry/83168
    http://bix.yahoo.com/entry/80033
    http://bix.yahoo.com/entry/81728
    http://bix.yahoo.com/entry/83835
    http://bix.yahoo.com/entry/81930
    Some of those pictures I have them also in my computer to use as an avatar. But all of them all popular over the internet.
    Here are other types of photos that should be removed as soon as possible:
    -photos with emoticons (already existing on yahoo or downloaded from another site that has emoticons )
    -photos that have websites names written on them(you can find quickly from where were downloaded)
    -photos from movies, computer games of any other photo with famous characters

    Comment by Seinfeld — July 4, 2007 #

  43. yep senfield, you have right again. I wrote too about pictures with cats , dogs and others. ..but dont wory, meybe the yahoo team wanna make a chat for this kind of pictures
    cheers all !

    Comment by pascalin — July 4, 2007 #

  44. [...] resources : Emoticon Contest page wikipedia Yahoo messenger blog Liked the Post :-) !! Then do consider subscribing to Blog [...]

    Pingback by Yahoo Celebrates 25 years of emoticons at Tech | Freak , One stop for all your latest technology news and updates — July 5, 2007 #

  45. I have been using YM since it first came out and now the only reason I use it on my mac is becasue of the webcam ability. Sad to say that overall the msn messenger works better and has no annoying features. Cant we just have chat and webcam and be done. The best part I like and they better keep is no ads on the mac version, no messenger has them and I dont want to see that crap either!!!

    Comment by Ryan — July 8, 2007 #

  46. The animal pictures are basically really annoying.
    also, the pictures of [mostly girls] trying to be hot or whatever, need to go. they aren’t even doing anything related to the emotions. I skimmed through and very few pages actually had some real entries.

    Comment by Cassie — July 8, 2007 #

  47. In an interview with Network World, emoticon “father” Scott Fahlman discusses his quirky claim to fame, his personal emoticonish likes and dislikes, Penn Jillette’s venom, and his meeting with author Neal Stephenson, once an emoticon critic but now a convert.

    http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/17332

    Comment by Paul McNamara — July 9, 2007 #

  48. Great article, Paul. Thanks for the link!

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — July 9, 2007 #

  49. I think you should make the big smiling emoticon but with grillz!!!
    LOL!

    Comment by Rachel — July 10, 2007 #

  50. Grillz would look awesome on a smiley!

    Comment by Alyssa — July 10, 2007 #

  51. [...] don’t forget to enter the Yahoo! Messenger Emoticontest to be the new face of Yahoo! Messenger! Yahoo! Messenger will add six new animated emoticons to its [...]

    Pingback by Q&A with Mr. Smiley himself - Yodel Anecdotal — July 10, 2007 #

  52. How about ” on phone ” ?

    Comment by SK — July 10, 2007 #

  53. Hi SK – We’ve got one for that!

    The text equivalent is (remove the spaces when you type it in):

    : ) ]

    Comment by Administrator — July 10, 2007 #

  54. Hey Guys…I agree there are no real entries for new emoticons….So i made some during my lunch break using Paint…LAME!!! i know…anyway you guys should take a look and let me know wat u think…in the BIX search just type khedruptenzin…and youll see my 4 entries…i might do more if i think anyone really cares about the next emoticon instead of pics of animals (still good pics, but shouldnt be here)…let me know wat u guys think

    Comment by Tenzin — July 11, 2007 #

  55. I want to see a flying pig emoticon … for When Pigs Fly! It’d be easy for them to develop, just combine the angel’s flapping wings with the pig!

    Comment by Angela — July 11, 2007 #

  56. OK guys,…I guess im gonna stop making emoticons since no matter what, i will never get nearly as many visits as a cute animal or a swimsuit model. Had a few more ideas but im not wasting my time on a contest that has no real limits…..my vote is for the picture of the puppy dog with droopy eyes saying “sorry”…thats my vote for cutest animal pick…..L-)

    Comment by Tenzin — July 11, 2007 #

  57. It’s interesting to see all the complaints from Mac users who don’t realize how much harder it is to develop software for the Mac (a proprietary system) than it is for the PC. In the previous century I was a software developer who used to bug my senior partner about developing a version of our software for Macs…until I found out how hard it was to even find Mac programmers.

    Comment by Celeste — July 12, 2007 #

  58. how about frustration emmotion (for when yahoo does not work all the time btw)

    Comment by fdgfd — July 12, 2007 #

  59. Like this?

    Text equivalent (remove spaces between characters)
    X (

    Comment by Administrator — July 13, 2007 #

  60. I’ve been trying to understand why there is not emoticons of color, clearly the african american emoticon is absent. I mean – they have the gosh darn united nations in there for audibles!
    Where’s the african amercian EMOTICONS!

    Comment by Shazbat — July 17, 2007 #

  61. where the heKK are the freakin african american emoticons!!! Racist man

    Comment by Shazbat — July 17, 2007 #

  62. Good observation, Shagsdad. The only african american emoticon ive seen likes like aunt jemima

    Comment by Bionic Woman — July 17, 2007 #

  63. Hey Shatabat, i freakin love emoticons. they are my life.

    Comment by Bionic Woman — July 17, 2007 #

  64. i think they emoticons are super scooper wonderful thats why so many people love them on they yahoo messengers keep it up emoticons you number # 1

    Comment by kathy — July 19, 2007 #

  65. A good one would be someone clapping, jumping up and down. It is a sarcastic response to a “good answer.” This is inspiration from Family Feud!

    Comment by Our Friend Fred — July 21, 2007 #

  66. hi
    i want new emoteicons, plzzzzzzzzzz

    :-D

    Comment by Ali — July 27, 2007 #

  67. anyone see any real emoticon drawings in this contest…..i uploaded a few…i wanna see other peoples…2 c mine just type khedruptenzin in the BIX search

    Comment by Tenzin — July 27, 2007 #

  68. Hi

    Very interesting information! Thanks!

    G’night

    Comment by hiutopor — September 17, 2007 #

  69. I really like Yahoo’s Emoticons and I don’t have the IM/chat connection problems some people have mentioned above. So I’d love to see more emoticons. They are GREAT

    Thanks

    Comment by Emrah — October 19, 2007 #

  70. hi
    i want new emoteicons plz

    Comment by mashuk — October 29, 2007 #

  71. [...] yourself. Remember our “Emoticontest” from June? Today’s new Messenger features our six attitude-filled emoticon winners: “thumbs [...]

    Pingback by The new Yahoo! Messenger is all about you - Yodel Anecdotal — October 29, 2007 #

  72. anyone can tell why my yahoo messenger Emoticons doesn’t work in chat dialog box?!
    I mean they just stuck..they don’t work properly there!
    but outside of yahoo messenger chat box like here they work..
    so,is there anyone who knows whats wrong!?
    thanks a lot in advance

    Comment by M — November 1, 2007 #

  73. how do i know the new emoticons?

    Comment by hipno — December 20, 2007 #

  74. How about adding the new emoticons the ones with i don`t wanna see ans other five and the hidden ones as well to old version 8.1 as an update.Think about the users that 8.1 is running better than 9, they want to see it as well.How about that?

    Comment by devit — January 24, 2008 #

  75. Wow, I love these emoticons. Yahoo emoticons rock. Wanna see more for MSN!

    Comment by Funny Emoticons — February 25, 2008 #

  76. Wow .. they all look so great .. Good Job… Keep it up Well .. i have a question though …. I love my old messenger 8 but .. the new one 9 .. looks even better although it doesn’t have all the things i was used with from the past ( games) I wonder … isn’t there any program or something .. a theme .. skin that could make my old messenger look like this one ?

    Comment by DoctorWho — May 17, 2008 #

  77. I know there is an emoticon for mean face sticking out tongue but I can’t find it now. please tell me how to do this.

    Comment by Kain — May 23, 2008 #

  78. Hi Kain,

    You can see all emoticons on this page:

    http://messenger.yahoo.com/features/emoticons

    Sarah Bacon

    Comment by Administrator — May 23, 2008 #

  79. check out sweetIM they have all the smileys you could want even the finger and it.s suppose to work on yahoo messenger and e mail allthough i havent been able to get it to work on either good luck and fix the macs i hate to hear all the crying

    Comment by curley — July 3, 2008 #

  80. they should create a melting icon!

    yknow.. melting in love kinda stuff.

    Comment by davidM — November 3, 2008 #

  81. I saw a webpage in spanish thet has a lot of emoticons free for download…you have many zips with diferents emoticons…
    http://www.hispanosnet.com/emoticones-gratis-msn/index.html

    Comment by Mike — December 27, 2008 #

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