Google has a new Gmail labs add on for emoticon fanatics. When flipped on it adds an additional 1,200 or so to Gmail's emotion selector tool. New categories include things like national flags, more animals, road signs, and animations.
There are 13 categories in all, up from the two that come with the standard Gmail, which means it can take longer to find what you're looking for. All these additional emoticons actually come from Japanese phone carriers, each of which has its own set that works across all handsets. In Gmail's case, your recipient does not need to be a Gmail user to see them since they're simply embedded as image files.
Related: Looking for love in Vietnam: Don't forget to :)
With more emoticons you can skip real worlds in place of cute animals or symbols.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The Gmail team, which recently announced Gmail for Mobile 2.0 and autoreplies, is at it again on Friday with the introduction of Gmail emoticons.
"The black-and-white days of text-based e-mails have had their day," Darren Lewis, Gmail engineer, said in a blog post. "Following the evolutionary path blazed by colored labels, we present, in all their technicolor glory, emoticons in your mail."
Emoticons have been available on Google Chat for quite some time, but this is the first time they've made an appearance on Gmail. Besides obvious gestures like smiling or winking, the new emoticons will enable users to input images of hugs and kisses instead of "XOXO" and pictures of drinks, cake, or exclamation points to help them get their points across better.
Although the announcement was made to add functionality to Gmail, Lewis did say that all the emoticons made available in this release that weren't already offered on Google Chat have been added "for your enjoyment."
Emoticons have been available on Google Chat for quite some time, but this is the first time they've made an appearance on Gmail. All the emoticons made available in this release that weren't already offered on Google Chat have been added.
(Credit: Google)
Yahoo Messenger 9 offers a more elaborate friend list and can display videos and photos in the chat window.
(Credit: Yahoo)You can't take it with you, at least when it comes to your social graph.
But with a new beta version of Yahoo Messenger 9 software (download it for Windows) released Thursday, users have new options for reconstructing networks of friends and contacts they've built elsewhere.
The new beta of Yahoo Messenger 9 can help user invite contacts on AOL, Google's Gmail and Orkut, Microsoft's Hotmail, MySpace, and other online services to connect through the Yahoo service. Version 9 also includes a special group of all people in your Yahoo address book, helping to connect with contacts users may have stored elsewhere within Yahoo itself.
Also tying more deeply into the rest of Yahoo, the new beta can be used to reflect some other activities within the network--for example, when somebody spotlights a Web site of interest using Yahoo Buzz.
"We'll add more types of updates in the future," said product manager Sarah Bacon in a blog posting about the new beta.
Yahoo Messenger 9 is intended for use on Windows XP, in contrast to the more obviously named Yahoo Messenger for Vista (download it for Windows Vista). The final version of the Yahoo Messenger 9 is due in the third quarter, Yahoo said. The Mac equivalent is scheduled to be released by the end of the year.
Also new in the beta is a better interface for setting status messages--even if you're away from your IM software, Yahoo said. And links to games present in Yahoo Messenger 8 has made its way to version 9, so users can play pool, checkers, and others. However, only those with version 8.1 or later can play games with those using the version 9 beta, Yahoo said.
Yahoo Messenger's icon, a frighteningly happy face, reflects the fact that people have a whole section of their brains just for processing facial information. Yahoo is tapping into that visual cortex a little more directly with the new beta, which uses larger emoticons.
For further information, check Yahoo's blog about the new beta or a Messenger 9 beta demo video.
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