Yahoo! Messenger version 8 Plugins, where are they?
 ....Plug-ins...or is it plugins.. or perhaps pluggins... either way search for the lot if you need to Google, and on with my rant...
I've been really blessed to be able to stick my nose over Andy's shoulder during his first hand experience with the Yahoo! Messenger version 8 Plug-ins. I've been watching him pour over the Yahoo! Messenger Plug-in SDK and toil away for hours on end creating possible Plug-ins, he's scoured the Support & Community ~ ydn-messenger looking for support and asking questions which for some unknown reason (perhaps my ignorance of how the process works), may or may not get a response, then he hits the net, does some scrounging , dives right back to plonking and then finally ventures into the lengthy process of trial and error... all on his own.
I've seen the process from beginning to end.. right from the initial idea through to the actual creation of the plug-in itself, then the testing and the rejection.... the whole lot... and one thing I've learnt is that creating a Plug-in is not for the faint hearted. I certainly don't envy those who have the immense job of sifting through them all trying to work out what goes and what stays... in fact I feel really sorry for them because at times it must seem a very thankless task... some things I just don't understand though... like how can one plugin be rejected because...
Moderator Comments: Plugins should not install 3rd party software.
yet others, that require Third Party Software (like iTunes Remote) be approved? The rejected plugin "Spoken Status" was based on Andy's very popular Y-Voice Alert which would speak the name of your friends coming on and going offline, something we are all prone to missing, yet it appears that because the plugin required and used Microsoft® Agent technology (ships with Windows XP by default) it was not permitted... yet with iTunes Remote, iTunes, a 3rd party software, is required and must be downloaded and installed to use.. oh and iTunes requires that QuickTime be installed also... another 3rd party application.... it's greatly perplexing but others have suffered the same fate also which is a real shame.
If the thought, of after hours and hours of work, your plug-in may be rejected, doesn't put you off then check out the Yahoo! Gallery rating system... don't even get me started on that because I think it's dead wrong that the developers, after putting in a huge amount of time and effort are then faced with a Gallery rating system that is unmoderated. Everyone is entitled to an opinon and that's exactly what the Gallery is for, but then you're faced with twits that trot around the gallery posting 1 star ratings simply because they don't like a particualr beverage, don't like Yahoo! or a particular media payer in fact all manner of things that have nothing whatsoever to do with the developers plugin, and all of which impact on the overall rating of some really great additions to Yahoo! Messenger.
Speaking of the Yahoo! Gallery...
One of Andy's plugins got approved, you can find it in the Yahoo! Gallery at YEmote, but here's the Gallery quirk that has me somewhat confused every time I visit... it has since I first went there, and a few weeks later it still does... where are all the plugins? It's clearly confusing others also so let me explain the stumbling block that may take some getting used to...
Since Yahoo! Messenger v8 was released from Beta there have numerous News reports mostly stating something along the lines of "Yahoo Messenger 8 Launched - Already 180 Plugins" or "Yahoo! Messenger Gets Plug-Ins Galore"... and there are a few of them... so where are they? where are the 180 plug-ins that I can use with Yahoo! Messenger v8?
As of today (1 August 06) if I hit the Yahoo! Gallery directly via http://gallery.yahoo.com I'm basically in a "library" of Plug-ins... not all of them are for using with Yahoo! Messenger, in fact to find the Messenger plugins you really need to access the Messenger category which is located at http://gallery.yahoo.com/messenger, but before we get there, see if you can follow this....
This is our starting point...
The Featured Technology section from http://gallery.yahoo.com currently links to the Messenger Plugin Gallery and it displays the following Messenger Plugin stats...
Messenger
111 Developed
23 Developer(s)
|
 |
The stats above tell me that there is 111 developed plugins that I can get and use with Yahoo! Messenger v8.. or does it?
On the right side of the Gallery page is a dead sexy feature called
Browse by Popular Tags
the bigger the words shown, the more popular the tag is so from the screenshot to the right you can see that "Tab Plug-in" and "Messenger" are very popular ones... I clicked on "Messenger" and was then redirected to
http://gallery.yahoo.com/tags/Messenger
but now I only had 94 plugins available
|
 |
I was dropping plugins faster than a rat up a drainpipe and I had no clue as to why... so the plonking continued and I returned from where I first started out, back at http://gallery.yahoo.com
From there, for me personally, when I clicked on the Featured Technology link which was http://gallery.yahoo.com/messenger I was redirected to the US gallery at http://us.gallery.yahoo.com/messenger, now this isn't a problem, but have a peek at the number of available plugins on offer for me now....
What happened to all my plugins? It seems, not that most of us would realise (well I didn't *blush*), that it's location dependant and it also depends on what Yahoo! Messenger with Voice v8 you are running because if you click the Plugins link from inside the US build of Yahoo! Messenger it will take you to the US Plug-in gallery and by the sound of it the the Australian one will take you to the Australian gallery, UK one to UK gallery, on and on it goes etc and not all locations have the same number or types of plugins available.....
So where are all the plugins everyone is talking about? It appears they are right across the board from Music to Flickr to del.icio.us to Search to Shopping to UI Library to Maps to Travel to Misc. and of course our much loved Messenger and it will depend on which Gallery location you access... I'm guessing the 180 plugins available are for ALL the categories....
| Yahoo! Gallery Plugins |
Music
Flickr
Search
del.icio.us
Shopping
UI Library
Maps
Messenger
Travel
Misc. |
12
14
58
4
1
6
54
25
3
5 |
| |
182 |
...and for ALL the locations / Countries so if at first you can't find what you're looking for, don't give up, don't assume it's not available yet, check out the other countries, see what they have that you don't, example being Andy's YEmote conversation plugin is availabe at http://us.gallery.yahoo.com/apps/380/ and http://gallery.yahoo.com/apps/380/ but not any of the other country galleries, you wont even find it if you search for it, ditto for the really cool Yahoo! Greetings eCard Plugin http://us.gallery.yahoo.com/apps/503/.. some things are worth looking for :)
If you need help or more information with Yahoo! Messenger Plugins check out our Quick Plugin Guide which explains the difference between Conversation and Tab plugins and also gives a step by step installation guide as well. For one on one support check out our WackyB.co.nz forum or for help with the YEmote Plugin see it's support thread Yahoo Mess v8 Smiley Plug-in available
|
Clear/Edit YahooMessenger Status History
WackyB Skin & Utilities Ultimate Pack!
Yahoo! Messenger 
want to comment? something to say?
check out 
Clear/Edit YahooMessenger Status History
bee's Yahoo! Messenger Skin Cupid
YahooV8Multi.reg
Yahoo! Messenger v800683 Sound Files
YEmotePLUS (for Yahoo! Messenger v8 ONLY)
Yahoo Messenger Twitter Sync
