Smileys

Smileys are famous over the Internet for their happy expressions. They are used as a morale-booster in communication. It was introduced in 1960s and it has gained prominence since then. Smileys are a result of development of the Internet and modern graphics. There have been thousands of graphical smileys and now most of them are animated. The first smileys were smiling faces, but today there are so many varieties to them. The smileys were introduced two decades before the advent of emoticons, there is no doubt that the free emoticons of those days were majorly influenced by smileys.

Purpose of Emoticons

Emoticons have been developed as a replacement of facial expressions to avoid misunderstandings. Recognising the need for emoticons there have been many books that have been written on the subject. Some forums also accept emoticons. For instance, in Internet forums, emoticons change into corresponding images. In some versions of Microsoft Word, basic emoticons are recognised such as the or the . With the introduction of richer media in online communication, graphical emotions become more and more popular. As the popularity of animation formats continued to grow, free emoticons started being a part of chat servers like Windows Live Messenger, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)

Internet Usage

Many chat sites allow the usage of emoticons to help effective communication. There are various sites where one can download free emoticons if one does not have the required ones. There are millions of categories of emoticons that are available. There are different versions of the usage of emoticons though. Few people use a “left-handed smiley” which goes something like (:. This can cause miscommunication, because it can also be interpreted as a frown. East Asian emoticons are a different genre. It is usually in the format where the superscripts are the eyes and the underscore is the mouth. Here are some of the East Asian characters listed below:

^_^ Smiley Emoticons

~_~ content

> .< sad, oh no

*_* ?

-_- sleepy

T_T flowing tears

Western Emoticons

There is a western style of emoticons which is used by most of the world. The list of emoticons and their meanings are given below:

smile

sad

X-( angry

:-S confused

B-) cool

:-’( crying

|_p cup of coffee

*-* dazed

=P frustrated

glasses

Although some persons are allowed to get hold of ready-to-use emoticons in certain applications, there is the opportunity to personalize and revise your emoticon library. Emoticons can be accessed using a number of online websites which display thousands of illustrations for users to choose from. The best thing is that a wide range can be downloaded free of cost.

Some sites customize their emoticons for some applications or services. Services such as Yahoo Messenger and MSN Messenger build their own array of emoticons distinctly provided by online pages. Add.emoticonsl.com is one such site that specializes in free emoticons for certain applications. The site presents a compilation that accounts for just about any mood or expression a person may want to announce.

Topbits.com is another free of charge website offering a collection of approximately six thousand free emotions. The site promotes animated emoticons, Smiley Emoticons, funny emoticons, and naughty emoticons, along with a assemblage of other emoticon picks. These emoticons are useful for MSN, MSN Messenger, Hotmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and many other online systems.

Free.emoticons.co.uk provides free emoticons for social networking sites like Facebook, and MySpace, and blogs and forums. So if you would love to augment your profile page or forum post these emoticons are perfect.

Emoticons can as well be utilized to portray people or objects usingdefinite text characters. For example, |_P could be a cup of coffee, while (_8^ (1) might be used to portray Homer Simpson. Because it is often complicated to communicate feelings when communicating by text, emoticons help communicate your actual feelings. However, when you use unique or uncommon emoticons, you run the risk of the other person not comprehending the emoticon and therefore adding more confusion to the message. For this basis, it is usually best to adhere to commonly used emoticons.

An emoticon list allows users to search for specific emoticons by typing in a key word or by browsing through a list of emoticons. The emoticon list varies as different symbols could represent the same things. The variation pertains to the diverse applications that use emoticons as well as the imaginative keyboard shortcuts that people conceive to convey expressions. Wikipedia provides a list of notable and commonly used emoticons or textual portrayals of a writer’s mood or facial expression in the form of icons. The list showcases two styles, the Western and the Eastern. The Western use of emoticons is a whole lot different than the Eastern use, and Internet forums, such as 2channel, display expressions in their own ways. In current times, graphic representations, both static and animated, have taken the place of traditional emoticons.

The emoticons included in the Sharpened Emoticons list range from highly common to rather uncommon. Therefore, some will be recognized by your instant messaging program, while others will not. Sharpened.net has alternate lists distinct to instant messaging applications. These consist of AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and ICQ Instant Messenger. For example the keyboard shortcut for Angel in AOL O is different from the one used in Windows (a).

Tracked as far back as the nineteenth century at which point they were routinely used in casual/humorous writing; emoticons have developed into one of the notably common and fun internet applications around the globe. One of the most famous emoticons typeset is the smiley face which was created in 1963 by freelance artist Harvey Ball. The smiley face became the founding basis for all other emoticons that came following.

Emoticons are symbols used to express emotional meaning in a written configuration. A grouping of the words emotion and icon, emoticons show meaning by using symbols or icons. They are usually used in online communication, and more commonly in messaging applications such as MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. These applications also come with standard emoticons but users are able to grow their selection by downloading emoticons from online websites.

The first move to downloading emoticons is to do an internet explore for online sites that provide them. There are sites that will allow this business for free, so declare this in your search engine. Free emoticons can be acquired on websites including addemoticons.com and smileycentral.com, which are likely to give emoticon downloads for free; look through through a number of sites and choose the service that best represents your needs.

Once you select your emoticon site, check over the emoticons applicable and pick the ones you desire to download to your computer. Most sites should feature a “Download” button. Click the button and you can then keep the file to your computer. Display your new emoticons in the messenger or email program of your choice.

Exercise care when downloading anything online. You should have a functioning anti-virus program on your computer in the event of any possible virus downloads.