March 16, 2010 on 12:28 pm | In 10 version, Features, Mac version, Pingbox | 47 Comments
One of our lesser known but very useful products is the Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox. With a copy and paste of some code, you can embed a chat window into your website, blog or social networking page. Then when visitors come to your page, they can see when you’re online and initiate a private IM conversation with you.
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
March 17, 2009 on 10:48 am | In Pingbox | 37 Comments
Occasionally we hear from users that even when they are signed into Yahoo! Messenger, their Pingbox that’s embedded on their web site, blog or profile page shows them as offline. This is due to your Yahoo! network presence being set to show you as offline.
To fix it, be sure you’re logged into the Yahoo! network (e.g. you see your name up at the top of a Yahoo! page) and then click the link below. Hitting that link will toggle your online presence back to “on”. Your Pingbox will then show you as being available when you’re online in Yahoo! Messenger. Note that you’ll only show as online in your Pingbox when you’re signed into Yahoo! Messenger 9.0, Yahoo! Messenger for Mac, or Yahoo! Messenegr for the Web. Signing in on a mobile device or to IM in Yahoo! Mail will not show you as available on your Pingbox.
IMPORTANT: Changing your Yahoo! network presence to online also means that you will be shown as online within other Yahoo! sites such as Yahoo! Groups, message boards etc. – anywhere the online presence indicator ( 
/ 
) appears within different Yahoo! products.
http://edit.presence.msg.yahoo.com/edit/config/edit_identity?.set=1&.opi=0
Note: After you click the above link, you’ll be taken to a blank, white page. That is by design. You won’t see any visual confirmation of the change. We also recommend logging out and back into Yahoo! Messenger after you click the link.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
March 12, 2009 on 8:00 am | In Other services, Pingbox | 52 Comments
Pingbox, our embeddable IM application for web pages, is now available for Facebook. Now you can put a Pingbox on your Facebook profile, and visitors to your page can IM you without having to download or sign into Yahoo! Messenger.
To add a Pingbox to your page, visit the Yahoo! Messenger Pingbox application page on Facebook. The same customization tools are available in the Facebook version, so you can personalize your online and offline greeting, choose from dozens of designs, and if you wish, require your visitors to give themselves a nickname before they can IM you.
With the Pingbox app, your friends can IM you from your profile page even when you’re not on Facebook.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
March 11, 2009 on 9:19 am | In 9.0 version, Mac version, News, Pingbox | 301 Comments
Voting for the 2009 About.com IM Awards ends this Sunday at midnight EST. Please take a moment to vote for Yahoo! Messenger using the links below. Even if you’ve already voted, feel free to do it again! 
Click a category below and once on the page, click the Yahoo! Messenger listing to vote (you’ll also see current results after you vote).
1) Best Overall IM Experience
2) Best Mac IM – Yahoo! Messenger for Mac
3) Most Improved IM Client
4) Best IM Feature – Pingbox
5) Best IM (GUI) Design
Thanks!
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
February 17, 2009 on 12:09 pm | In 9.0 version, Mac version, Pingbox | 27 Comments
For the second year in a row, About.com readers nominated Yahoo! Messenger as a finalist in several of the categories for the Best IM Awards of 2009. We hope you’ll take a moment to vote for us and help us hold onto our title from last year.
Click a category below and once on the page, click the Yahoo! Messenger listing to vote for us (you’ll also see current results after you vote).
1) Best Overall IM Experience
2) Best Mac IM – Yahoo! Messenger for Mac
3) Most Improved IM Client
4) Best IM Feature – Pingbox | (What’s Pingbox?)
5) Best IM (GUI) Design
Thanks to the About.com readers for nominating us in these categories and special thanks to those of you that cast a vote. Voting ends Sunday, March 15, 2009 at midnight EST.
Sarah Bacon
Product Manager
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