- Best IM Client for Windows | vote
- Best IM Client for Mac | vote
- Best IM Chat Rooms | vote

The winners are determined by you, the readers, so head over to About.com to vote for Yahoo! Messenger in the above categories. Voting begins today and runs through March 8.

Thanks to About.com readers for nominating us. We appreciate it!

Sherrine Tan
Yahoo! Messenger Team

For those of you who haven’t already done so, download the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger and experience high-quality, full screen video and voice calling today!

Sherrine Tan

Yahoo! Messenger Team

However, some of you may have noticed that for the last several hours there have been some problems with the interoperability features especially related to sending IMs from Yahoo! Messenger to other networks.

The good news is that our engineering team has identified the problem and fixed it – if you are still experiencing intermittent problems, please Sign Out of Yahoo! Messenger and sign back in.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused as a result of this issue.

Thyaga Vasudevan
Product Manager

Mother’s Day this year is just around the corner on Sunday, May 9th.  I am sure many of you might have planned something special for your moms for this day.

Here are some of the ways Yahoo! Messenger can help to make this day even more special for you especially if you live far away from your mom.

(1). Video Calling – Real-time communication in Yahoo! Messenger took a giant leap last year with the introduction of High Quality Video Calling available in the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger. Our users have taken a liking to this feature and use it especially if they have to talk to friends/families staying far away. So, if you haven’t tried this yet, then this is a perfect time to try out Video Calling with your mom and see her on this special day.

(2). Free PC-2-PC and Paid Calling – As you know, Yahoo! Messenger always had the ability for users to make Free PC-2-PC Calls – so, if your mom is online on Yahoo! Messenger, you could make a free call and talk to her or leave a voicemail if she isn’t online- no matter how large the distance.

If your mom is not online or simply not a Yahoo! Messenger user, then you could also call her on her land-line or mobile using the premium Yahoo! Voice product where you can make local and international calls at great quality for really cheap rates.

(3). Change your Avatar in Yahoo! Messenger to express your love for mom. To do this, simply head over to Yahoo! Avatars and then search for “Mother’s Day” in the “Avatar Search” box. Chose any Avatar from the hundreds of Mother’s Day Avatars and then change your Display Image within Yahoo! Messenger to share this Avatar. Your mom’s joy will know no bounds when she logs into Yahoo! Messenger and sees your Avatar – we guarantee it.

Hope these help you to make the day really special. If you used these or any other products or features from Yahoo! or Yahoo! Messenger on this day, then do drop in a comment – we would love to hear from you.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Thyaga Vasudevan
Product Manager

Very recently we learned of an issue where some users have received spam messages in Yahoo! Messenger from their contact list. Yahoo! Messenger has quickly worked to resolve the situation.

As always, we recommend that any Yahoo! Messenger user who receives a suspicious IM containing a link should first IM the friend to ensure the message is legitimate before moving forward. We strongly advise users to not download executable (.exe) files that are sent through Yahoo! Messenger. Also, we recommend that users that have anti-virus software on their computer employ the latest anti-virus updates.

Thyaga Vasudevan
Product Manager

In a poll conducted over the Blog about the various Video Call features, the Full Screen view and the ability to share photos/videos/files etc with your buddy while on a Video call were by far the most popular.

Some of our users also love the fact that they could do various fun effects while on a Video Call. Imagine it is Christmas and you are far away from your family – isn’t it cool that you can quickly have a video call with your family and then morph yourself as Santa Claus and celebrate Christmas together?

So, here is a quick poll so that you could share with us as to why you use the Video Calling feature:

Thyaga Vasudevan
Product Manager

We, at Yahoo! Messenger, thought we might make this Easter a bit special for you all. Today, we are letting you on to a couple of hidden or “Easter egg” features within Yahoo! Messenger:

(1). List of Hidden Emoticons – use them to surprise your friends

(2). Hold down the windows key and press Y to bring up Messenger no matter what window you’re in.

We hope you will enjoy these hidden features as much as you have enjoyed using Yahoo! Messenger.

Happy Easter!

Thyaga Vasudevan
Product Manager

Then there are those friends that just don’t know how to really say goodbye. You think the conversation is over and “ping!”, a new message comes in. How do you get them to say goodbye?

Thankfully Yahoo! Messenger has a few ways for you to get your message across, in the most humorous way of course.

We’ve got a set of Goodbye audibles that let you impersonate a number of silly characters who all have their own excuse for why they need to skedaddle. “Gotta go..my meds are kicking in!” says one nervous looking fellow. A pony-tailed woman with a choke dollar purrs “Gotta go. My parole officer needs to use the computer.”

Then there’s the audible that won’t shut up – the flight attendant with the incessant “Buh-bye. Bye now. Buh-bye.” And rather than lie to your friend about a meeting you have to run to, just tell them the truth with the spectacled pooch: “Gotta go, Gotta go. I gotta pee!”

We’ve also got a few emoticons that fit the goodbye ritual. There’s the “wave” emoticon which also doubles as a hello emoticon. I’m also a fan of “talk to the hand” emoticon . It’s a more abrupt way to end the conversation, but it has its uses. If you’ve really had enough, try the “not listening” emoticon .

One of my favorite ways to sign off IM? The “hug” emoticon.

And since it’s a cinch to share and watch videos in the Yahoo! Messenger conversation window, you can always send them a goodbye classic (watch below).

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

Now when you send or receive a link in an IM conversation, you can easily save it to your Delicious account and share it with friends. Here’s how it works…

Imagine that during an IM conversation, a friend sends you a link that you want to save. It could be a cool new website, important driving directions or a memorable video.

To save it, hover your mouse on the hyperlinked web address and look for a small “Bookmark” button nearby. Click it and a window will open up where you can enter and save details about the link to your Delicious account.

You can enter in notes about the link (“Where Sarah stayed in New Zealand”) as well as tags that will help other Delicious users find your link (new zealand, eco resort, four stars).

If you already have an account with Delicious, you may need to first visit Delicious.com to link it to your Yahoo! ID. But if you’re new to Delicious, you can create your account using your Yahoo! ID right in Yahoo! Messenger.

Delicious is not just a place to store your bookmarks, it’s also a place to see what’s hot and trending and find other Yahoo! users that are into your favorite websites. But you can use Delicious just as a private place to store your bookmarks. When saving a link, just click the “Mark as Private” box.

Yahoo! Messenger also supports the sharing of Delicious.com updates. So when you save a link to Delicious, your friends will see your latest update in Yahoo! Messenger, on their profile page, in Yahoo! Mail etc. It’s a great way to share what sites you’re into at the moment. You can always turn off Delicious updates on the Manage My Updates page on your Yahoo! profile.

The Yahoo! Messenger / Delicious.com feature is available to users on Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 and 10. So what are you waiting for? Go try it out and start sharing your favorite links with friends.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

This latest release includes several security enhancements. You can download the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger 10 from our website.

And as always, we welcome feedback about your experience with the product. Just go to the Help menu in Yahoo! Messenger 10 and select “Send Feedback…” to get started.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager