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

This latest version, 3.0.1.35554, includes a bug fix for display image issues, as well as a crash bug fix.

Download Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0

As always, we welcome your feedback about this latest version. To submit your feedback, go to the Help menu in Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 and select “Send Feedback” to get started.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

My friend Jim has a Pingbox on his neighborhood blog. While he’s on Yahoo! Messenger all day, his status says “Available” in his Pingbox. When visitors come to his site, he can see the counter change next to the Pingbox in his contact list. If someone wants to chat with him, they simply start typing in the Pingbox on the website, which in turn opens up a new IM conversation for Jim. His visitors can remain anonymous or give themselves a nickname while they chat.

One of the greatest things about Pingbox is that there is no need for anyone to know your Yahoo! ID or for you to know theirs. In fact visitors to your site don’t even need a Yahoo! ID to start chatting with you. You can also turn your Pingbox on or off right from your Yahoo! Messenger 10 contact list, so if you find you’re being interrupted too often by chatty visitors, you can go dark for awhile.

Jim says one of the things he really likes is that when he hovers on the Pingbox visitors in his contact list, it will show him what page on his site that visitor is on. But mostly he likes to see the number of people that are passing through his site all day and be available to them. He says he’s gotten some good tips about neighborhood stories from his Pingbox chats.

If you have your own blog, website or social networking page, it’s easy to add a Pingbox. Just visit the Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox Studio and click the “Create a Pingbox” button. You can customize your background, text size, display name, and whether or not you want to show your display image. You can even put in a custom message that users will see in the Pingbox when you’re online, or when you’re offline. Once you’re done, you’ll receive some code that you can copy and paste into your site.

Then just login to Yahoo! Messenger using the same Yahoo! ID under which you created your Pingbox and voila – you’ll see a new group in your contact list and if you have visitors, a count next to the group name. Note that in order to appear online and receive messages from your Pingbox, you need to be signed in to Yahoo! Messenger 10 or Yahoo! Messenger for Mac. However unlike version 10, the Mac version does not display your Pingbox visitors in your contact list.

Do you use a Pingbox on your website, blog or social networking page (e.g. Facebook, MySpace)? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

- Best IM Feature: video calls | vote
- Best Mac IM | 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 February 25.

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

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

This latest version includes a fix for a sign-in issue that some users have been experiencing. When we tested this latest version with some of those users, they found that it did correct their problem.

Download Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

One problem we did find is the video software called CamCamX directly conflicts with our latest version of Yahoo! Messenger for the Mac. If this video mixing software is installed on your Mac, your Yahoo! Messenger will no longer work because of a software conflict.

To get Yahoo! Messenger working again, you’ll need to uninstall the CamCamX software.

We realize this particular fix will not solve everyone’s sign-in problems, so we’ll continue troubleshooting the issue and update you here on the blog when we have additional news or workarounds.

Thanks for your patience,

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

This latest version includes a couple of new features and many bug fixes to help enhance overall stability and performance. Other changes were made to ensure compatibility with Apple’s latest version of OS X, Snow Leopard.

For the first time, Insider is now available in Yahoo! Messenger for Mac. The new version of Insider offers quick access to the latest news, including local news for U.S. locations. You can also check the weather, see what awaits you in your Yahoo! Mail inbox, or easily search the web, images or video.

This latest version also includes a “Report a Problem” feature to make it easier for Mac users to report technical issues they’re experiencing. To access it, click on the Help menu and select “Report a Problem to Yahoo!”.

From there you can select the feature area that relates to your issue (sign in, messaging, webcam etc.), and then describe the problem you’re having. We really appreciate it when you submit your problems this way as the diagnostic information that’s included helps us better troubleshoot the issue.

Download Yahoo! Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta

As always, we appreciate your feedback which you can submit by going to the Help menu in the Mac version and selecting “Send Feedback”.

We hope you enjoy this latest version!

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

Download Yahoo! Messenger for Mac Beta 3.0

Thanks for your patience while we worked out the bugs.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

We’ve identified the problems causing the chat room crash and the sign-in problem* (see potential workaround below), and will be releasing those fixes in a new build soon. So stay tuned to the blog; we’ll let you know as soon it’s available. Thanks for your patience.

On an Apple-related note, we’re smiling this week because we hit the 1 million download mark for our Yahoo! Messenger for the iPhone app. Thanks to all of our users for giving it a try and providing their feedback. We really appreciate it.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

* Here’s a workaround if you are having trouble signing in since you updated to 10.5.7 (and are using a “behind the firewall” connection setting): Try disabling auto-login. To do that, click on the Yahoo! Messenger menu, select “Preferences”, then click on the “General” tab. Uncheck the box that says “Automatically start Yahoo! Messenger”. Quit Yahoo! Messenger completely and relaunch it again. If this fixes the issue, please hold off on turning auto-login back on until we release the new build.

Webcam display image: Use your webcam to take a display image picture. Pose for your shot, hit the “Take Snapshot” button and wait for the counter to get to 1 – then smile! To use this feature, go to the Yahoo! Messenger menu, select “Preferences” and then click the Display Image icon in the toolbar. Click on the “Image” option in the center, then click “Webcam” to take your pic.

Hide display images in your contact list: On some days, it can seem like none of my friends have a display image. There’s only so often I can look at an anonymous grey head. So if you like to keep things simple, or just don’t like your friend’s display images, you can hide them on your contact list.

Go to the Yahoo! Messenger menu, select “Preferences” and then click the Display Image icon in the toolbar. Then uncheck the “Show display images in my Messenger list” box.

Apple + n keyboard shortcut: This handy trick brings up a contact search box with auto-filtering, making it easy to find a friend in your list and start a new IM.

What’s your favorite tip or trick in Yahoo! Messenger for Mac?

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager