On the Internet that you get from people's facial expressions in face-to-face conversations. You can personalize your written messages by using these emoticons. You create smileys by typing characters from your keyboard. Early emoticons were text-based - typically a set of characters that when grouped together and viewed from the side resembled a a facial expression - but major IM systems now offer graphic versions, annoyingly animated.

An Emoticon (or Smiley) is a sequence of ordinary characters you can find on your computer keyboard. Emoticons are used in e-mail, chat, SMS and other forms of communication using computers. The most popular emoticons are the smiling faces (smileys or smilies) that people use to say "don't take what I just wrote too seriously". If you don't see that it represents a smiling face, tip your head to the left and look at it again. The colon represents the eyes, the dash represents the nose, and the right parenthesis represent the mouth. Many people use MSN and Yahoo, for this reason I added a list with MSN and Yahoo emoticons. When using these during your chat session, they will be converted to real icons. These emoticons show an Emotion through an 'Icon'.

To help someone knows you are "just kidding", add a :) to the end of the sentence. If you only see this as a colon and parenthesis, then try tilting your head to the left. See the Smiling Face now.....

This is essential viewing for any web user, and will allow you to express your self properly online. Emoticons are used to express positive and negative emotions, humor and irony and help us convey the message more precisely. Written phrases lack emotions without emoticons and can be wrong understood.

History of Emoticons

Since the dawn of communication between man there have been many symbols, codes and punctuation used to communicate emotions and feelings difficult to represent through text. Early examples can be seen in Morse code abbreviations from the 1850's and print publications in the early 1900's. There is no clear date as to when the first emoticon was used nor is it clear who really invented the first emoticon. It is however generally accepted that the common sideways smiley face in use today was invented by Scott Fahlman in 1982.

The use of the first smiley face and frowning face emoticons was proposed by research professor Scott E. Fahlman, from the department of computer science at the Carnegie Mellon University in the USA.

How to Get MSN Emoticons

Chatting on MSN Messenger is a fun way to express yourself with your friends. You can be very serious and discuss something important. Or, you can be totally free to go crazy and have fun. The problem, however, is that your friends can't always tell when you are serious or merely joking around. Sure, you can use standard emoticons to try and express yourself more clearly; but it's kind of boring to use what everyone else has. To uniquely capture your feelings, you can get MSN emoticons.

How To Use Emoticons

Do not use emoticons in your writing if you are not sure the person receiving your message knows their meaning. If they do not understand, then what you thought was clearly a joke could be taken the wrong way. Emoticons are best used in emails and text messages between friends, who all share a common emoticon language. Place an emoticon at the end of a sentence to set its tone, as you would an exclamation point for excitement or a question mark for puzzlement. Emoticons are also handy for putting after a particular word, if you want to change its meaning within the sentence.

Common Emoticons used by Users

There are many ways to draw faces using symbols, but the following examples are the most used and recognised:

-0 :) =) :D =D means Happy.

:-( :( =( means Sad.

XP means Disgust, or a bad joke.

XD means Laughing Hard.

:-/ :-\ means Skepticism or Annoyance.

:-| means Indifference or Sarcasm.

;-) ;) means Winking.

:-P :-p means Sticking Your Tongue Out or Blowing A Raspberry.

B-) means Wearing Cool Glasses, indicating pride in something.

8-| means Wearing Nerdy Glasses, indicating something is uncool.

:-O =O :O means Shock or surprise.

:-x means 'I shouldn't have said that', shocked silence or no comment.

:-* :-** means A kiss, and returning a kiss.

Complicated Emoticons

It is possible to draw far more detailed emoticons using your keyboard. Remember, the more complicated an emoticon is, the less likely the person reading it is to understand if they haven't seen it before. Here are a couple of examples:

<--<-- means A Rose, for flirting or apologising.

<[+]=^( this is called 'The Sad Pope', for commenting on the morality of a situation.

Purchasing MSN Emoticons

* Open MSN Messenger.

* Click on "Actions" and then scroll down to "Get More From Messenger."

* Highlight either "Emoticons" or "Winks" from the menu that appears.

* Choose one of the Web sites listed, such as "Kiwee Emoticons."

* Click "OK" when the dialog box appears directing you to the Web site.

* Scroll through the available categories and click on the one that appeals to you.

* Click on the graphic that you would like to purchase.

* Click on the "Buy Now" button.

* Click on the "Add to Cart" icon and then follow the procedure for purchasing your emoticons or winks.

Tips & Warnings

  • When downloading files from the Internet, make sure you scan the files with anti-virus software before opening them. Even if you get the emoticon from a trusted Web site, you can never be too careful about viruses. Take the extra moment to do a quick scan to keep your computer free of unwanted programs.

  • There are many places where you can download free emoticons. Do a brief search using your favorite search engine to find additional Web sites.


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