keys to help you to identify which IMVironment comes with what feature/s..
means it comes with a specific Buzz, like how Snow had the spat and Hearts had the kiss
comes with music
comes with it's own smileys
for video

Review of Monsters Inc, Dilbert, Hello Kitty, Snoopy, Magic Crystal Ball, Last Shot, Falling Hearts, Fish Tank, Snow Flakes, Stars n Stripes

Monsters Inc IMVironment ™
I like this one! I guess it's just more my style whatever that may be ;-) The graphics are great and it has a few features that are different to the std IMV's... it has Buzz, a light switch and a movie trailer ...

Buzz (Ctrl+G) plunges the IMV into darkness with a zingy noise that I have to say is far less irriating than the std buzz! This "lights" out feature also appears after you've sent the first message, top left hand of your screen...

click on it to turn the lights off... and again to turn them back on :-)

The active links in this IMV are to [Showtimes and buying Tickets] and the [Offical Monsters Inc] homepage and the movie trailer plays inside the IMV at the top..(requires Media Player).

Dilbert IMVironment™
This IMV has the buzz feature enabled.. when you use ctrl+g you Gilberts boss pops out and says 1 of the 3 things.. "You know you're only pretending to work", "Where's my status report?" and "Shouldn't we be having a meeting"
The active link (top panel of the active IMV) takes you through to [Comics.com] where you can subscribe to get Dilbert delivered to your inbox each day.. for Dilber fan's I imagine this would be a must





Hello KittyIMVironment™

	:)			X(
	:(			:>
	;)			B)
	:D			>:)
	:-\			:((
	:x			:))
	:">			:|
	:p			0:)
	:O			:-B
				=;
				|-)
				:-&
				:-$
				[-(
				:0)

is high on the cute scale and has it's own smileys which replace the std yahoo ones (as per the table to the left) it may take a bit of adjusting to get the drift of them if you're smiley dependant :-)
The active link is in the top right hand corner.. "Sanrio" takes you through their [Sanrio Store]

Snoopy IMVironment™
is cute.. for those of us that want something a little more sedate going on in the background during our IM then this is for us. Woodstock travels at a pace I can handle across my IM window andSnoopy will type when you do.. very cute :-)
The active link (bottom l/h of IMV) takes you through to [Snoopy.com] where you can check out everything Snoopy ;-)

Magic Crystal Ball IMVironment™
This is like.. um.. having your own personal Yes/No answering machine.. type your question into the text field and hit Send.. with a slight twiddle of fingers and an appropriate sound (which you can turn off.. simply click the sound icon on the lower r/h corner of the IMV window) the answers are returned in the crystal ball. Speaking of answers, these are somewhat unusal but fun none the less. It did get one right.. I asked "will I get coffee soon?" the answer.. "I'd bet the farm on it" ;-) This IMV installs on your puter and also adds "Yahoo Magic Ball (I have answers to all your questions)" to your friends list.. I wonder if the Magic Mall is limited to 100 friends ;-)

Last Shot The Comic IMVironment™
Your IM conversation unfolds as a comic strip with each Message sent/received showing up a new frame.. kinda cool but during a long conversation your talking about a lot of scrolling of you want to check what was said 5 minutes ago ;-)

Last Shot comes with some of it's own smileys.. not your conventional kind either.. and the Last Shot smileys aren't inserted into your IM conversation as such.. the frame holds the smiley itself.. and your assigned either Rev or Shindle.. check this out..
...the smileys that generate a Last Shot graphic in place of the std Yahoo Smileys are...



The active link (bottom r/h side of the IMV takes you through to view the latest [Last Shot Comic book]




Stock Standard IMVironments ™ that came with Yahoo Messenger (beta) v5001015, 1018 and 1029...


Hearts IMVironment ™

animated hearts drift slowly down the IM window.
Now if you hit Ctrl+G when your using the Hearts IMVironment™ you'll be kissed with a huge set of red lips and instead of that annoying DingDong noise you'll hear a kissing sound! The recipients window still vibrates and the lips will gradually fade away. Deadly cool! but now I have to say "please don't kiss me! If you continue to do it I will put you on ingore" doesn't quite have the same ring as "Please don't buzz me.." does it ;-)



Fishtank IMVironment ™

this one is deadly cool... bubbles rise to the top while your fish swim across your IM window!
If you hit Ctrl+G in this window you'll generate the std BUZZ! a gurgle of bubbles would have been nice.. I just hate the dingdong noise ;-)





Snowflakes IMVironments ™

animated.. the snowman pops up when you select this one and snow flakes slowy drift down the IM window.
Now if you hit Ctrl+G when your using the Snowflakes IMVironment™ you'll be splatted with a snow ball and hear exactly that.. a splat sound. I just know I'll be using tha one! The recipients window still vibrates and the splat will also gradually fade away.




Stars and Stripes IMVironment ™

This one will touch the hearts of many... the Stars and Strips IMVironment™ has an animated flag.. actually if you check out the upper left hand corner of ever page of our site you'll see the same flag.. Yahoo and I clearly shop at the same place ;-)

Anyway..as I said the flag is animated and the there are two active links... one for the [Red Cross] the other [Salvation Army] both links will launch a new browser window outside the IM window. Using BUZZ (Ctrl+G) in this window also generates the std BUZZ and the annoying dingdong
.








Check out [IMV's How To] if you need to know more about how they work :-)

Links...
[Yahoo! Messenger - IMVironments™] (Yahoo! Site)

Full List of IM's released (not all are still available)...

Links...
[Yahoo! Messenger - IMVironments™] (Yahoo! Site)