Discussing MSN emoticons should probably start with understanding what emoticons or smileys are. The necessity to render emotions in written words while still keeping the style casual led to the appearance of smileys or emoticons that are simple combinations of regular keyboard characters. They are popular for different computer communication forms, such as: email and instant messages. Smiling symbols were first introduced as MSN emoticons but they are available on Yahoo! too for instance. The smiling faces function a substitute for the face-to-face casual encouraging smile, but lots of other things can be implied depending on the context.
Since many people tend to use these signs while communicating via the Internet, MSN, Yahoo, and Google, too, provide you with lists of emoticons, which are converted to real icons while used during a chat session. These emoticons graphically express an emotion through an icon. And here we have an explanation for the name emoticon. Whether MSN emoticons or symbols belonging to another provider, they truly make online communication more pleasant. The whole point or purpose for their use is to convey or stress out emotions and feelings in the funniest way.
There is no apparent difference in meaning between emoticons and smileys The tendency seems to be for the Europeans to use the term emoticons, while Americans tend to call the same things smileys. Anyway, regular messenger users often call them Yahoo smileys, MSN smileys or MSN emoticons. Lots of sites now provide the chance to download such free symbols and have them within reach when in an online conversation.
MSN messenger gives its users some free emoticons but it also allows you to use your own custom MSN emoticons. Many of these, which are really great, have been designed for messenger by fans. The custom MSN emoticons function allows an Internet surfer to use animated emoticons up to 50×50 pixels in size. At My Emoticons, for instance, all sorts of categories are available for the MSN emoticons, and romance, bad boys, girlie or moody instances are just a few examples. You’ll even find adult emoticons and sex smiles that can make a message or email pretty spicy.
Each MSN emoticon has a tag, which automatically generates a particular item. Type a colon and a right hand bracket and you’ll get a smiley. Using the opposite bracket will give you a sad face. Many other emoticons also have tags that resemble them, and a constant Internet user can learn them quickly. For the more difficult to remember, use the drop down menu included in the chat window. Like this, MSN emoticons will be just a click away.