Great to keep in touch with friends and family (Yahoo! Messenger)

Member Name: chocomint

Product:	Yahoo! Messenger
Date:	20/10/08 (118 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, free and many features

Disadvantages: I keep getting logged off and very slow sometimes

What it is and how to get it,

Yahoo messenger is offered by Yahoo to anyone from anywhere in the world for free. It's a very convenient way to keep in touch with family and friends.
Yahoo messenger can be downloaded from http://messenger.yahoo.com/download/

Users must have a valid Yahoo ID and Password to sign into Yahoo Messenger.

Features of Yahoo Messenger

Sending Instant Messages - Users can exchange real time messages with contacts on the friends list. Unlike e mail this is much more convenient as the person you are talking to is also online and you can get their response almost immediately. Users also have the ability to have a multi user conference where many people can chat in the same window.

Sharing photos or files - Users can transfer files from their computer to other users through Yahoo Messenger. Just drag and drop the file or click on the send file button and start sending. Or photo-sharing can be used to share photos, just send an invitation to your friend and when accepted start sharing your favorite photos.

Making Calls - Users can either call a mobile or call a friends computer through Yahoo Messenger. Right click on the contact you want to call and choose either call computer or call a phone number, and then dial in the number and make your call. Or click on the icon of the phone and make your call.

Webcam chat - If both users have webcams, they can chat with friends while they can see their friend and vice versa.

Playing games - Users can play games with other friends. There is a list of games like pool, chess, dominos, backgammon, toki toki boom, word racer etc.

Emoticons, text, audibles and IMViornments - These can be used to make the conversation more interesting. Yahoo messenger has all sorts of cool emoticons like thinking, waving, laughing, crying etc. And you can change the colour of the text, size and type by clicking on the format button. Audibles are animated talking character. And you can choose an IMVironment, which changes the way your chat window looks.

You can add more friends into your list at any time by clicking the add button on the main window and writing in their e mail address.

Users also have the option of changing their status on Yahoo Messenger so that friends can see if they are available or not, or you could add a new personalized message to show your status.

Yahoo messenger has many cool and useful features which make it a very useful program to have. I have been using it for the last 7 years and have liked it a lot. But of late I keep getting signed off and have some difficulty trying to log in, so I don't use it as much as I used to.

Summary: Good for chatting, but needs improvement

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