Yahoo Messenger
Table of contents:
- What is Yahoo! Messenger?
- Do I need to use Yahoo! Messenger?
- Benefits of Yahoo! Messenger
- Installing Yahoo! Messenger and creating an account
- Adding users to your contact list
- Sending messages
- Deleting users from your contact list
What is Yahoo! Messenger?
Yahoo! Messenger is an online chat, voice and webcam video application also known as instant messaging. You can use this free service to communicate with all oDesk professionals, customers, and oDesk staff. To send and receive instant messages, you need to have Yahoo! Messenger installed on your computer.
The instant messaging software enables you to set up a list of contacts by entering their YahooID in your Messenger List. Once you set up this list, you can see if each contact is online at a particular moment. If so, you can begin a conversation with them quickly and easily.
Most conversations are typed text messages that are sent back and forth; though more advanced users can exchange voice, video, files and more.
Do I need to use Yahoo! Messenger?
The use of this tool ensures that you and your team have a constant, reliable line of communication available to you. Yahoo! Messenger can also be used to conduct multi-person chat conferences with your team.
For example, customers could arrange weekly or daily chat conferences with the entire team to discuss any issues related to the assignment as a whole. Also, we recommend that customers interview candidates via Yahoo! Messenger.
Benefits of Yahoo! Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger provides:
- Visibility into when your contacts (customers, professionals, oDesk support) are online
- The ability to send messages to your contacts even if they are offline (messages are received the next time the users login to Yahoo! Messenger)
- Easy webcam integration with no additional software or configuration required
- Archiving of chats
Installing Yahoo! Messenger and creating an account
If you haven’t done so already, please download Yahoo! Messenger.
- Go to http://messenger.yahoo.com/.
- Click the Download Now link to begin the download.
- After the download completes, click the installer to launch it.
- In the Installation Options window, oDesk recommends that you select the following options:
- General – uncheck Automatically start Launchcast and uncheck Show Yahoo Insider
- Archive – check Enable archiving and uncheck Automatically delete files older than 10 days
- After the download and installation are complete follow the instructions to create an account.
Adding users to your contact list
To start using Yahoo! Messenger, you should first add a few contacts to your Messenger List. oDesk recommends that you add the YahooIDs of any oDesk Professionals that you would like to interview.
All emails from oDesk introducing candidates contain the worker’s YahooID
Select Add a Contact from the Contacts menu and follow the instructions on the screen.
Sending messages
You can send instant messages whether your contacts are online or offline. If you have a speaker and microphone, you can optionally connect to participate in a voice chat.
Deleting users from your contact list
You can remove contacts by highlighting a name on your contact list, and choosing Delete in the Contacts menu.