Yahoo Messenger is a full featured messenging client allowing you to send instant messages, e-mails, files to anyone with a Yahoo account. The newest ’’Yahoo Messenger’’ outshines the competition in all respects. The file size is small, the interface is extremely simple to use and navigate thru. It is loaded with features such as Instant Messaging along with the ability to leave messages for others if they are off-line. You get free telephone calls within the U.S.A and you can chat with and make new friends. You can even create your own chatroom. You have the ability to send and recieve files and can enable voice chat as long as you have speakers, a mic and a soundcard installed. You can set your own ’privacy ’options’ and can even have up to ’’6’’ different chat-’profile’ names! Changing the ’theme’ (picture) on your messenger interface is easy too.It is also well integrated with the Yahoo website.
Pros
The biggest reason I use Yahoo messenger instead of ICQ is that I use many computers through the course of a day and Yahoo let’s me take my contact list (as well as my ignore list) from one computer to another as it stores all buddies on central server. The skins are also great . I really like being able to personalise the client like this.Great to know when it tells me ’’New email’’. I wish it would have a tab with one liner subjects from all my new Yahoo mail
Comparison Chart:
Advts. - Yahoo Messenger: None (except for tabs other than friend list)
Interface - Yahoo Messenger: Very clean compared to especially ICQ which looks so cluttered, esp. in advanced mode
IM Features - Yahoo Messenger: Many features compared to AIM and ICQ which have more than Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger which has less than Yahoo Messenger .Yahoo Messenger works on the K.I.S.S. principle, Keep It Simple Stupid :-)
Memory Requirement - Yahoo Messenger: Very little (<2MB) AIM: Lots (>8MB) MSN Messenger: Medium (>3MB) ICQ: TONS (>12MB)
Firewalls - Yahoo Messenger: supports. The MSN Messenger and ICQ just don’t work here I am.
Cons
A highly usable option missing is the reconnect option when disconnected and more importantly not showing the yahoo ICON in the systray with a ’’X’’ or something to visually tell me I am off.
Although Yahoo Messenger is localised for many countries, it does not have multi-language support - particularly with Unicode characters, you can’t even use Windows’ IME function to type anything other than your default Windows language. How am I supposed to chat to all my overseas friends ?
Every 20 minutes, Yahoo Messenger tells me I’m logged on on a different machine and kicks me off. Sometimes it kicks me off for no reason. Now it won’t let me send messages, just receive them.
The friends list manager could be a bit more robust, right now all contact list management is done through a website. There is no way to move a person from on group to another without deleting them and adding them again later. As well when ever you view someone’s profile, you must go through a number of layered dialog’s to reach it.
Does Yahoo Test their own product ? Messenger has a few bugs they need to work out. 1. creating a custom message without the busy icon, doesn’t allow messages to come through. 2. file transfer rarely works.Also they had some really cool features like rainbow text, but they removed them in never version.
The last gripe I have with Yahoo Messenger has to do with way it starts up. It takes too long, and there is no way to make it startup as an icon in your system tray the way ICQ and MSN do. Instead it always pops up the main application window which must be minimized before I can continue to use my computer.
In the end I think Yahoo Messenger is a good program with a good idea behind it. Besides a few minor annoyances it functions well for day to day activity.