Yahoo Messenger v6 & v7 Smileys / Emoticons Comparison

The 10th August 05 was a great leap forward for Yahoo! with their production release of "Yahoo! Messenger.. with Voice", and yep we got some cool new features and yes, we also got 8 new smileys which was cool. Now we have 87 smileys to try and master, hopefully some bright wee spark will come up with a utility for Yahoo! users that will give us the ability to access all the smileys, not just those shown on the current drop down menu. Don't get me wrong, the new smileys are handy, I voted for "on the phone" and it seems a few others thought this would be a handy smiley to have because Yahoo! not only added it but they also put it on the drop down menu for easy access... sensible move and a huge thanks from me.. consider it a bouquet.... but now for the brick bat, which a few days later I'm still wishing was more of a building than a bat :\

I have just one sentence which for me, sums it all up, well pretty close to it.... my brick bat / building starts and ends as "What on earth were you thinking???!"

I've been a loyal Yahoo! user since before the smiley days (Yahoo! Pager v644), yes there once was a time when our much loved messenger had no smileys... then in v3 Yahoo! gave birth to 8 dear wee smileys (trust me, at the time it was really exciting :p ), if you check out our brief Yahoo Messenger Smiley & Emoticon History you can see for yourself how, over the versions and years, the smileys have evolved into the much loved and easily recognised ones that we have today, or rather had...

Yahoo!'s unique style of smileys was introduced to us back in 2000 with v3.5 when they introduced 16 to our IM windows. I was particularly attached to , I was , I lived and breathed it was my answer to everything, in fact if was a key on my keyboard it would have been worn down to a mere stump years ago, I was also a bit of a fan and over the years I became quite partial to and as well.. until I installed Yahoo!'s latest version that is.

The softening of the "yellow" I can cope with... just. I miss it but I can cope with it, Yahoo! has always been bright yellow and a deep rich purple as far as I was concerned, it's what made it cool, the way it stood out.. in your face... a huge online Ta Da! statement, Yahoo! had attitude. For years, in my book at least, Yahoo! Messenger lead the charge, it was cool, it was fresh, it was funky, we had the best smileys which were introduced in 2000, then in June 2001 with v4.1 Yahoo! introduced us to webcam, they then delivered IMV's in September 2001 with v5 and we got our typing indicator at that time also, we got Avatars which mimiac the smileys we use in IM in 2004 and at the same time they gave us Display Pictures as well, and we still had the best smileys of any other IM progam in the market place. What happend? I don't know... I wish I did, I wish I understood, I wish Yahoo! could give us a headsup re what on earth they were thinking when they touched the smileys...

If you're thinking "wow stress burger!" you're right, because stressed I was, in fact you wouldnt believe how ticked off I was, obsessive? Heck Yeah! for me it was like going to visit your nice, warm, comfortable, fuzzy grandma in her rocking chair only find out shes had a massive face/body lift and her navel is now firmly lodged on her forehead!

A perfect example of "what on earth were you thinking???! is the clown ... it was it's now OMG! what on earth were they thinking! IMHO, this now resembles some grubby old pervert or some Jason gone wrong character from a spooky horric flick, next on my "what on earth were you thinking???!" list is which is now and right behind that is and then throw in and then just to top off my misery is now

If you can't tell by now that I took it personally... then what have you been reading? :p Yahoo!'s smileys were unique wee characters that leapt through my IM conversations adding a funky Ta Da! by brightening moments, expressing feelings and poking fun at friends and co-workers etc when used... since I upgraded to v7 (out of beta) they didn't leap through my IM's they tip toed through and they didn't Ta! Da! they Ta Doh!'d instead....

So what did I do to stop my complaining and whinging and whining? I replaced my standard v7 smileys with the old ones from v6, yet still retained all the keycombos and the 8 new smileys released in v7, this is so easy to do as Yahoo!'s smileys are stored locally (on each users computer), you can find your Yahoo! smileys in the smiley folder at C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Media\Smileys, simply overwrite your existing smileys with the ones from version 6 :) For me this was the perfect solution as it only impacts on what I see, not what others see, so those of my friends and family etc who are partial to the new look smileys don't notice any difference and I can get back on with through out my IM's instead of 'ing every time a new one was used.
If you too are not so keen on the v7 smileys yet still wish the retain the new 8 and the new featuers in v7 without having to return to v6, then download Smileys_6_7.zip, unzip then copy and paste the contents to C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\Media\Smileys overwriting the original v7 files.

Yahoo! Messenger Smileys / Emoticons Comparison
	v6/v7beta	v700426				v6/v7beta	v700426
1.gif/bmp			:)	happy	28.gif/bmp			I-|	sleepy
2.gif/bmp			:(	sad	29.gif/bmp			8-|	rolling eyes
3.gif/bmp			;)	winking	30.gif/bmp			L-)	loser
4.gif/bmp			:D	big grin	31.gif/bmp			:-&	sick
5.gif/bmp			;;)	batting eyelashes	32.gif/bmp			:-$	don't tell anyone
6.gif/bmp			>:D<	big hug	33.gif/bmp			[-(	not talking
7.gif/bmp			:-/	confused	34.gif/bmp			:O)	clown
8.gif/bmp			:x	love struck	35.gif/bmp			8-}	silly
9.gif/bmp			:">	blushing	36.gif/bmp			<:-P	party
10.gif/bmp			:P	tongue	37.gif/bmp			(:|	yawn
11.gif/bmp			:-*	kiss	38.gif/bmp			=P~	drooling
12.gif/bmp			=((	broken heart	39.gif/bmp			:-?	thinking
13.gif/bmp			:-O	surprise	40.gif/bmp			#-o	d'oh
14.gif/bmp			X(	angry	41.gif/bmp			=D>	applause
15.gif/bmp			:>	smug	42.gif/bmp			:-SS	nailbiting
16.gif/bmp			B-)	cool	43.gif/bmp			@-)	hypnotized
17.gif/bmp			:-S	worried	44.gif/bmp			:^o	liar
18.gif/bmp			#:-S	whew!	45.gif/bmp			:-w	waiting
19.gif/bmp			>:)	devil	46.gif/bmp			:-<	sigh
20.gif/bmp			:((	crying	47.gif/bmp			>:P	phbbbbt
21.gif/bmp			:))	laughing	48.gif/bmp			<):)	cowboy
22.gif/bmp			:|	straight face	100.gif/bmp			:)]	on the phone
23.gif/bmp			/:)	raised eyebrow	101.gif/bmp			:-c	call me
24.gif/bmp			=))	rolling on the floor	102.gif/bmp			~X(	at wits' end
25.gif/bmp			O:)	angel	103.gif/bmp			:-h	wave
26.gif/bmp			:-B	nerd	104.gif/bmp			:-t	time out
27.gif/bmp			=;	talk to the hand	105.gif/bmp			8->	daydreaming

Yahoo! Messenger Hidden/ Secret Smileys / Emoticons from version 7+ (v7.0.0.426)
	v6/v7beta	v700426				v6/v7beta	v700426
49.gif			:@)	pig	66.gif			b-(	feeling beat up
50.gif			3:-O	cow	67.gif			:)>-	peace sign
51.gif			:(|)	monkey	68.gif			[-X	shame on you
52.gif			~:>	chicken	69.gif			\:D/	dancing
53.gif			@};-	rose	70.gif			>:/	bring it on
54.gif			%%-	good luck	71.gif			;))	hee hee
55.gif			**==	flag	72.gif			:-@	chatterbox
56.gif			(~~)	pumpkin	73.gif			^:)^	not worthy
57.gif			~O)	coffee	74.gif			:-j	oh go on
58.gif			*-:)	idea	75.gif			(*)	star
59.gif			8-X	skull	76.gif			o->	hiro
60.gif			=:)	bug	77.gif			o=>	billy
61.gif			>-)	alien	78.gif			o-+	april
62.gif			:-L	frustrated	79.gif			(%)	yin yang
63.gif			[-O<	praying	106.gif			:-??	I don't know
64.gif			$-)	money eyes	107.gif			%-(	not listening
65.gif			:-"	whistling

Yahoo Messenger v 6.0.0.1643 (24 May 04) Smiley Drop Down Menu	Yahoo! Messenger v7.0.0.426 (10 August 05) Smiley Drop Down Menu
:) :-/ :-O >:) O:-) :-& (:| @-) :( :x X-( :(( :-B :-$ =P~ :^O ;) :"> :-> :)) =; [-( :-? :-w :D :-P B-) :| I-) :o) #-o :-< ;;) :-* :-S /:) 8-| 8-} =D> >:P >:D< =(( #:-S =)) L-) <:-P :-SS <):)	:) :-/ :-O >:) O:) :-& (:| @-) :)] :( :x X( :(( :-B :-$ =P~ :^o :-c ;) :"> :> :)) =; [-( :-? :-w ~X( :D :P B-) :| I-| :O) #-o :-< :-h ;;) :-* :-S /:) 8-| 8-} =D> >:P :-t >:D< =(( #:-S =)) L-) <:-P :-SS <):) 8->