Using the search term "smileys", Google churns out 28,200,000 results; Yahoo with 94,000,000. The figures indicate the increasing popularity of cool smileys and emoticons with the way people communicate on the internet today. No wonder, smiley and emoticon providers have proliferated like mushrooms on the internet; each claiming their bunch of cool smileys is the best. To encourage online users to try out how smileys and emoticons work, and on how they impact messages sent via emails or on how they spice up comments on social networking pages, most smiley companies provide free download feature with their cool smileys.
As most smileys and emoticons are compatible with the more popular email servers like Yahoo! Mail, GMail, Hotmail, or AOL, email messages are no longer dry and terse. They now carry as much emotion as the person who writes the email would like to convey. But free download ?cool smileys only come in limited number, thus the emoticon representing your exact emotion at a specific moment may not be available for your use. To ensure that you'll never run out of cool smileys to send in your emails, it is wise to subscribe to a reliable provider.
How would you know, which one to choose? Here are four things you should check out for: Designs. Graphics should be attractive, well-crafted and do not appear "smudged-on". There should be large collection of cool smileys to choose from; as you would want to find the exact expression and lend a special character in your email all the time. Your cool-smiley provider should not only make available a wide collection of unique and eye-catching designs, but also those that "speak" of the times; how people express themselves today.
Compatibility with the more popular email services. Find out how flexible your cool-smiley ? software is in terms of its compatibility with the more popular email service providers, such as Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, GMail, AOL, Earthlink, Comcast or Outlook. Conversely, there are hundreds of cool smileys software companies, but there is only a limited number of companies that are compatible with a larger base of email clients. A suitable smileys company to subscribe to is one that is compatible with most of the email providers. Sizes.
You need variations when you use smileys ? small, medium or large ? as there are just different levels of emotions, too. You may want to send in a large smiley grinning ear to ear to show how grateful you are to the recipient of your email, or send in a small version of an angry smiley to show disappointment, but would not want to emphasize the negative emotion too much. Ease of use and safety. Regardless of how useful smileys are, and even if their download to someone's desktop is free, he-she might hesitate to click on the download button for fear that along with the fun software is the-not-so-fun part: harmful viruses or ad ware and spy ware that might come along with the free download. Choose a company that offers online support, which is your guarantee that it is not a "fly by night" service, and one that expressly states on its website that its smileys are ad ware and spy ware-free. You would want to subscribe to a smiley-provider that puts customer satisfaction in mind, wouldn't you? It's time to retire colored fonts and highlights to emphasize a point in your email.
Cool smileys that depict a wide range of emotions are more convenient and efficient to use. You may check out free trials, or you may check out some reviews or feedbacks posted on the internet as to how other online users have found their use of smileys truly helpful. Spice up your email. Put some "life" into it. Send in your email cool smileys, and you can stop worrying about finding the right words to say. Cool smileys come handy when words are simply just not enough.
Christiene Villanueva writes for Zaazu.com, the company that brings you cuter and more vibrant smileys. Get your free gift of 300 + smileys on your desktop, which you can send to your emails or use to spice up your MySpace and Friendster communication in an instant by clicking on the download button you can find on the site. Zaazu smileys,with its truly innovative and unique software allows free download of animated and cool smileys.
