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

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

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 weekend you’ll see ads in Yahoo! Messenger for Discovery Channel’s new Life series, which begins March 21. Narrated by Oprah Winfrey, Life is an 11-part series about the natural world around us, and is the follow up to the critically acclaimed series, Planet Earth.

Rather than just offer up the usual banner ads, we’ve partnered with Life to integrate some fun Messenger functionality into their ads. If you see a Life ad in Yahoo! Messenger, be sure to click to expand it. You can watch a video preview of the series and then with just a click, share it with your IM friends, update your status to tell your friends about the show, or even change your display image to one of the cool animal images from the show.

While we know ads can sometimes distract you from what you’re doing in Yahoo! Messenger, we hope you’ll find that these special Life ads instead enhance your IM experience by giving you something fun to share with your friends.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

During that time, some of our voice features will be affected. The Call History feature within Yahoo! Messenger for Windows (9.0, 10) will not be available. To view your call history (PC-to-Phone calls only) during the maintenance period, please visit the Yahoo! Voice website.

In addition, any PC-to-PC calls made or received in Yahoo! Messenger during that time will not be added to your Call History. PC-to-Phone calls will be archived normally.

The maintenance work will also affect Yahoo! Messenger for the Web. If you use this version, you will not be able to view your online message archive during this time, nor will conversations during the maintenance period be archived.

Note that IM conversation archiving in our Windows and Mac versions will not be affected during the maintenance period.

We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

But if you’re not with your loved one this Valentine’s Day, don’t forget to send your hugs and kisses with Yahoo! Messenger 10.

Turn on the Falling Hearts IMVironment while you’re chatting to add some romance to the conversation (bit the Buzz button for some extra spice).

Or send one of our loving emoticons like lovestruck (), blushing (), the always popular kiss (), big hug () and a favorite hidden emoticon, the rose ()… check out the full list of Emoticons to find the right one for you. Hopefully you won’t be sending this one on Valentine’s Day: .

We’ve also got some saucy audibles under the “Flirts” category including classic pickup lines like “I hope you know CPR cuz you take my breath away” and pirate-enhanced flattery, “Arr! Your booty shivers me timbers!”.

And just when the kissing and blushing emoticons are flying back and forth, throw in the “Is it just me or is it getting really hot in here?” audible. To send a flirtatious audible, click the audibles button in the IM window, go to More Audibles > See All Audibles.

If you haven’t had a chance to try out the new video call feature, what better reason than to tell someone, almost in person, that you love them? I promise, it’s almost like being there. And don’t worry, you can send all the emoticons and audibles you want while you’re on the call.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

One preference I always set when I upgrade to a new version is “Always use my fonts and colors” (Messenger > Preferences > Appearance). That means that no matter what quirky font, color or size my friends use when they message me, it will always show up in the style I prefer (Arial, 12 for anyone who’s keeping track). I think I discovered this after my college roommate kept insisting on IMs with fluorescent green Tahoma letters in size 16.

While I like to think of myself as young, my aging eyes do betray me. I got tired of squinting at my list to find a friend so a few years ago, I changed my preferences to increase the font size of my contact list (you can also change the font). You can even have online friends show up in bold so they’re more noticeable. You’ll find this ageist setting in Preferences > Appearance, under the Messenger List section.

We’ve all dealt with random people IM’ing us. Sometimes we know them, sometimes they are spammers. To help me quickly separate the riff raff from my real friends, I changed my preference to “When I receive messages from people not on my Messenger list, show the messages in a single list” (Messenger > Preferences > Messages). That way, the messages are all listed in one window and I can quickly reply or ignore them (or mark them as spam). They appear in a window that looks similar to the one used for offline messages.

On the efficiency tip are a couple of shortcuts that may come in handy. If you’re like me and leave your Messenger window open all day long, you can save a step when it comes time to shut down at the end of the day. Under Preferences > General you’ll find a setting for “Sign out of Messenger when I close the main window”. Select that and save yourself the extra step of signing out and then closing down Messenger.

And last but not least is a shortcut you can use to update your status message more quickly. You may already know about the Windows + y shortcut, but do you know the Windows + Shift + y shortcut? That one takes you right to the waiting status message menu where you can start typing your deep thoughts and important updates. For this to work, you first have to enable it under Preferences > General; look for the checkbox that says “Enable system-wide shortcut keys to activate Messenger”.

What are some of your favorite settings, shortcuts, tips or tricks in Yahoo! Messenger? Leave a comment to let us know.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

The new FoxyTunes from Yahoo! Music plug-in lets you easily control your desktop music player as well as share the track you’re listening to in your Yahoo! Messenger status.

To get started, install the FoxyTunes plug-in, available for users on Yahoo! Messenger 8.1, 9.0 or 10. Once it’s loaded, click the “Select Player” menu and choose from a long list of players that are supported by the plug-in. All the biggies are there – Windows Media Player, iTunes, RealPlayer, Winamp, Musicmatch – plus many more.

When you select a player, it will launch it on your desktop (if it’s not already open). Then use the controls in the FoxyTunes plug-in to begin playing the song, skip to the next song, pause, adjust volume or move ahead in the song by clicking the progress bar.

To share what you’re listening to with your Yahoo! Messenger friends, click the “Share your music” icon (the one with two arrows on it). Be sure the box for “Display current song as your status message” is checked, and then click your status message menu at the top to select the currently playing song from the list. When the next song comes on, your status will automatically update.

Another handy feature in the plug-in is the ability to open and play an audio file from your desktop. Just click the “Play File” icon and choose the song you want to play.

The plug-in also includes quick access to the accompanying music website, FoxyTunes Planet. Click the FoxyTunes Planet button while listening to a track and you’ll go to a page for that artist which includes the latest news, lyrics for the song you’re currently playing, more tracks you can listen to right on the page, plus videos.

When you’re sharing your music via your status message, friends will also be able to click on your status message and be taken to the artist page on FoxyTunes Planet.

To add the FoxyTunes plug-in to your Yahoo! Messenger, visit the plug-in page on the website or click the “Add Plug-ins” button in your main Messenger window and select it from the list.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager

As you may recall, we jump started the campaign with events around our infamous Yahoo! yodel, which we’ve updated and riffed on in new ways with the Yodel Studio. Now we’ve launched some audibles to go with it that let you yodel as much as you want with twists of reggae, bluegrass, hip-hop, a capella, and R&B.

To access the audibles, click on the Audibles icon in the IM window, click “More Audibles”, go to “See All Audibles”, then find “Yahoo! Yodels” in the list. Audibles are available for Yahoo! Messenger 8.1, 9.0 and 10 only.

You can also dress up your Avatar in some of the latest Yahoo! gear, including t-shirts with the slogans from the campaign: “It’s my Web, you just live in it” and “Master of the Digital Universe”. To get changed, head over to Yahoo! Avatars, click on the “Branded” tab, then click on the “Yahoo!” link.

And if you want more than virtual reality, head over to the Yahoo! Company Store to order a real live t-shirt or other Y! gear.

Sarah Bacon
Product Manager