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What
is Messenger?
Introduction
For a long time,
Yahoo! Messenger (or Yahoo! Pager as it was called), was
simply another contacts list program, similar to that of
MSN. It didn't feature any extra features like Chat Rooms
or WebCams, but has had voice chat for a while. Over the
last year, Yahoo! Messenger came with it's own chat client
for accessing Yahoo! Chat Rooms, and since version 5.0, it
comes with webcams, more smileys, and IMVironments!
How Yahoo!
Messenger works
Yahoo! Messenger
works on the Yahoo! ID. This is the same for your Yahoo!
Email, your Yahoo! Profile and Yahoo! Chat etc... You
simply log into the messenger service using your existing
Yahoo! ID and password. Since version 5.5, users can be
known as anything they like, through the nickname system.
What this allows is for you to use any name you like, but
please remember your real ID is sent along with it, and is
visible to all users.
The Yahoo! ID
The Yahoo! ID must
contain only letters, numbers and underscores and nothing
else. My ID for example, is freddy18uk. Although you
might sign up with capitals in the ID, it will only show
as lowercase. It may not start with a number, begin or
end with a _, or have two or more consecutive _s. Abusive
terms, and words like Yahoo are also not allowed within
the ID. The nickname practically allows anything.
The Nickname
You can use a
nickname instead of your normal ID in Yahoo! Chat. Users
of the chat2.0 and Messenger service will see your
nikcname rather than your Yahoo! ID. The nickname is not
as strict as user IDs, and you can use the same name as
somebody else.
How it differs
from MSN, ICQ, AIM etc...
There are many
ways in which it differs. Firstly most of the above don't
have chat rooms integrated within the messenger software.
Also, Yahoo! Rooms do NOT have moderators of any type,
user or official. And although users can create their own
rooms, they have no authority over who can and cannot chat
in their room.
What is an
IMVironment
IMVironments are
like interactive scripts within the Instant Messenger
windows. They provide backgrounds, and features, such as
throwing snowballs, some even contain games, such as
chess. They come with more smileys and sounds.
Where to download
If you haven't
already, Yahoo! Messenger may be downloaded from
http://messenger.yahoo.com (for
US users), replace the .com with your international code
for other users. Please note international versions are
usually behind.
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