Labs

A prerequisite of downloading this service - or the previous version of Yahoo! Messenger, which lacked the PC-to-phone feature added by BT Communicator - is a free Yahoo! account. The program's facilities are presented in a large panel on the right of the screen. The four icons on the Messenger tab let you add a contact, send an instant message, make a free computer-to-computer voice call or make a computer-to-phone call using BT Communicator, which is a charged-for service, although the rates are cheaper than normal phone calls. Your Yahoo! address book is also displayed here. It's easy to invite any contacts listed here to your Messenger list as long as they have a Yahoo! ID.

Yahoo! Messenger supports file sharing, conferencing with multiple contacts and video. The feature that currently distinguishes it, however, is its voicemail facility. Even if you are offline or away from your PC, contacts can leave you a voicemail message. Your Call History also shows all incoming, outgoing and missed calls.

Many of Yahoo! Messenger's additional features integrate well with other Yahoo! content and services. The headphones icon accesses Yahoo!'s LAUNCHcast Radio, which allows you to create

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a custom playlist. The Calendar icon opens your Yahoo! personal organiser, another web-based facility, while the dice icon takes you to the games. There's also a weather forecast for selected UK cities and a quick link to BT's 118 500 Directory Enquiries service.

Although the interface looks plain, there's plenty of scope for customisation. You can choose a picture from the supplied choices in place of the default Yahoo! smiley face or use your own. You can also share your avatar, an image that can represent your personality and express different moods. Creating your avatar is done on a Yahoo! website and you can store up to 12 favourites. As soon as you change your avatar or display picture, the changes will take place in open conversations.

As well as modifying the appearance of the Messenger window by selecting different skins and alternative fonts, you can also alter it instantly by adopting a different IMVironment. These are described as "interactive themed backgrounds" and there are several choices. The default shortlist includes Falling Hearts, Harry Potter, Peanuts and Dilbert. Two of them are functional: Doodle gives all participants to the conversation coloured crayons and a drawing surface, while Photo Sharing gives access to any photo albums you have with Yahoo!.

Yahoo! Messenger supplies a range of emoticons to embed in a message, plus 'audibles', which are animated characters that announce messages such as, "Hello, anybody there?" and "I'll get on to that directly". Another welcome feature is the stealth setting, which enables you to appear online to some users and offline to others.

Yahoo! and MSN are working on a way to connect their respective IM communities to enable the interchange of instant messages between users of both services.