December 22, 2008 on 9:57 am | In Fun Stuff | 38 Comments
The blog will be on hiatus until the New Year, so we’ll see you in 2009. We hope everyone has a great holiday and a Happy New Year!
Cheers,
The Yahoo! Messenger team
December 17, 2008 on 10:15 am | In 9.0 version, Avatars, Fun Stuff, Pingbox | 4 Comments
December is already halfway done so time is running out to send your holiday greetings to your Yahoo! Messenger friends. Here’s a round-up of the fun things you can do:
Flickr IMVironment: Get in the winter spirit
Put some seasonal photos into your IM background with the Flickr IMV. It will open automatically to pictures from December, full of snowy landscapes and other winter favorites. Try it now with a friend or preview it yourself. (Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 only).
Holiday audibles
We’ve brought back the “Holiday” and “Holiday Hints” audibles. Send a mistletoe kiss to your sweetie or send a not-so-gentle reminder that you want to find a MP3 player under the tree this year. (Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 only)
Emoticarolers
Pick the Yahoo! Messenger Emoticarolers for your group, customize the lyrics to a favorite tune like “Jingle Bells” or “Deck the Halls”, and then send your e-card off to the digital doorsteps of your friends and family.
Pingbox holiday themes
Check out the new background themes in the Pingbox studio. If you’re already hosting a Pingbox on your website or social network profile, just edit its settings in the studio and your Pingbox will automatically get updated.
Elf your Avatar (or a friend’s)
Dress up your Avatar with holiday cheer for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or New Year’s. Or install the Yahoo! Avatars Makeover plug-in to create a new Avatar for your friends (plug-in for Yahoo! Messenger 9.0 only).
Happy Holidays!
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
P.S. – In addition to all these Messenger holiday goodies, there’s also a Yahoo! holiday e-card called “Frosty’s Scrapbook”. Choose a background (or upload your own photo) and then drag and drop fun objects into your card to create your holiday scrapbook greeting.
December 9, 2008 on 2:12 pm | In Fun Stuff | 13 Comments
Into every holiday season must come a little cheer… and some singing emoticons.
This year, we’re pleased to introduce the Emoticarolers, a band of cheery singers with their own unique take on the holiday classics. Pick the Emoticarolers for your group, customize the lyrics to a favorite tune, and then send your e-card off to the digital doorsteps of your friends and family.
Once you’ve completed your Emoticaroler greeting, you can IM it to a friend, include it as a link in your Yahoo! Messenger status message, email it, or download the MP3.
Here’s one I put together for all of our readers and commenters here on the blog:
Happy Holidays!
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
December 2, 2008 on 10:02 am | In Fun Stuff | 13 Comments
I came across a story on CNET today by Dong Ngo, an editor that is spending a month in Vietnam. While there, he is writing about how technology has permeated their culture. In his latest post, “Looking for love in Vietnam: Don’t forget to : )”, Ngo discusses how integrated technology is with the dating scene.
“Love, or the lack thereof, is an ongoing global issue. I offer no solution, but if you want to look for the one here in Vietnam, a word of advice: learn to text and know your emoticons.”
Ngo confesses that while text messaging is a simple endeavour, he is intimidated by instant messaging. This is because a lot of the Yahoo! Messenger emoticons mean something different to the Vietnamese. “Though most Yahoo IM emoticons are designed to mean something that’s widely understood, there are some that are interpreted here entirely differently from what they are originally designed to mean.”
Here’s a quick look at how the Vietnamese have re-interpreted some of our emoticons:
“Time out!” in Vietnam is known as “I am going to hammer you on the head”.
“Talk to the hand” and “Bring it on” in Vietnam is often used for “bye bye”
“Not worthy” is used to mean “po’tay” which is a slang way of saying “You’re too much, I give up”
Hard to say whether these are due to cultural differences or in the case of talk to the hand and bring it on, ambiguous animations on our part.
Either way, it’s always interesting to see how our users put emoticons through their paces. To read Dong Ngo’s complete story, head over to CNET.com.
Are there emoticons you use in an unintended way? Let us know by leaving a comment here on the blog.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
November 24, 2008 on 11:43 am | In 9.0 version, Features, Fun Stuff | 5 Comments
In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, we’ve got a couple of treats to share with you.
New Flickr IMVironment
Dubbed “the IMV for all seasons”, this new IMV displays Flickr photos in the background of your IM conversation. When you load the IMV, it goes to the current month we’re in. Then it will rotate photos that we’ve found on Flickr that fit with that month or season. Snowy landscapes in the winter months, sunny beaches in the summer – you get the idea.
When you switch to a different month, it switches for your friend too (but you’ll likely see different photos within each month because they rotate randomly), It’s a great IMV to add some color to your IM conversation. Plus when it’s cold and snowy outside, you can just switch to a warmer month to take your mind off things. Tip: You can move and resize the conversation space within the IMV. Try it now with a friend or just preview it yourself (Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0 only).
Thanksgiving Audibles
Send some thanksgiving wishes to your IM friends with this trio of audibles. We’ve got a thankful pilgrim and a bloated diner who really know how to show their gratitude for a good meal. And of course we have a talking turkey – how could we not? 
To access them, go to the Audibles menu in your IM window, select “More Audibles”, then “See All Audibles” and click on “Thanksgiving” (U.S. only; Yahoo! Messenger 8.1 or 9.0).
This will be our only post this week and comments will be turned off for a few days until we’re back in the office to keep an eye on things.
We hope everyone has a happy thanksgiving!
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
