Based on a long and recent thread in the Yahoo_Messenger Yahoo Group, I thought I'd create a blog about this issue which seems to cause a lot of confusion for users of the two web based versions of Yahoo Messenger (YM)
See the below thread.
Lenny Vasbinder
-----Original Message-----
From: Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 4:21 PM
To: Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Y!M] Need clarification : Messenger client and web messenger Contacts
Hi all,
Could anyone tell me clearly how contacts are supposed to be synchronized between the webmessenger of Yahoo! Mail and the Yahoo! Messenger client.
For some reasons I do not see the same contacts and people added in Yahoo! Mail will not show up in the client.
My main ID is (deleted) but I also have aliases. could this be the problem ?
Thank you very much
My first reply:
-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny The Computer Guy
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 4:42 PM
To: 'Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Y!M] Need clarification : Messenger client and web messenger Contacts
Yahoo Mail contacts are not the same as Yahoo Messenger contacts. Yahoo Mail contacts are people that you email and have added to your Yahoo Mail contact list.
Yahoo Mail contacts can have an email address from any of countless email service providers or ISP's whereas Yahoo Messenger contacts have to have a Yahoo ID (which can be the same as a Yahoo email address, but not necessarily) or a compatible user ID like a Windows Live ID.
The thing you are referring to as "webmessenger of Yahoo Mail" is probably not the correct term. Yahoo's Web Messenger is a browser based version of Yahoo Messenger that has limited functionality. Yahoo Mail Chat is the Yahoo Messenger version that works right off of your Yahoo Mail page when you have it turned on. I leave it off since, if you are on YM and then sign into Yahoo Mail and the Yahoo Mail Chat is turned on, it will boot you off of YM.
Your "friends" list from Yahoo Messenger should be the same when on Yahoo's Web Messenger or Yahoo Mail Chat but your YM "friends" may not be the same as your Yahoo Mail "contacts".
Lenny Vasbinder
Skype - LennyTheComputerGuy
YM - LennyTheComputerGuy
My Yahoo Messenger related blogs:
http://lennythecomputerguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Yahoo%20Messenger
-----Original Message-----
From: Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 5:35 PM
To: Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Y!M] Need clarification : Messenger client and web messenger Contacts
The webmessenger is well... a web version of the messenger. In this sense it is the same thing as what you call Yahoo! Chat
I'm not at all talking about the address book contacts but about the messenger contacts. In my case those are not the same.
In your terms my Yahoo mail chat contacts are not the same as my Yahoo messenger client contacts.
And my follow-up reply:
-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny The Computer Guy
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2010 9:13 PM
To: 'Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Y!M] Need clarification : Messenger client and web messenger Contacts
OK. Just to be sure we're on the same page, here is Yahoo's Web Messenger. You do need Java and Adobe Flash working in your browser to use this. http://webmessenger.yahoo.com/ Remember that signing into WebMessenger (or Yahoo Mail Chat) will sign you out of YM. When you sign in (for me, the sign-in window opened as a new tab on IE8 and then when I signed in, that tab closed and the WebMessenger tab became the active version of Yahoo WebMessenger. You will see an active image of your YM program with the same friends listed. You can IM your friends from there but with limited function compared to the regular YM program.
If you go to http://mail.yahoo.com/ and sign in, that will be your Yahoo Mail account and on the new version of Yahoo Mail, up at the top you will see Yahoo! Mail | Hi, (your name) | Available (or whatever your YM status is set to) | Sign Out. If you click on the Available or other status, you will get a drop down menu to change your status. On the left panel, under your Inbox, Drafts, Sent, Spam, etc. folders, you'll see a dotted line, then Contacts and your Yahoo Messenger friends will be listed there. If you click (or double click) on a name, it will open a new tab inside that Yahoo Mail frame and you can start IM'ing someone from there and it will work just like Yahoo Messenger but with limited functions (i.e. - no Webcam or many other features that are on YM). Yahoo calls (or called) this Yahoo Mail Chat when it first came out... although I don't see that name listed on the Yahoo Mail page.
Yahoo Chat is the Yahoo Chat Rooms which you can access from your main version of YM.
On all of the above, your Yahoo Messenger *friends* or *contacts* should be the same since Yahoo stores the database of our friends on their own servers so we can see our friends no matter which computer or YM version we sign in on.
Your Yahoo Mail contacts will be different and probably will include all of your YM *friends* but also any email contacts that you have. I just clicked on the Add link next to Contacts in the Yahoo Mail left panel and that opens a new Contacts Tab in the Yahoo Mail window frame and if you click on View All Contacts, you will see options. You will also see a BIG contact form that can be filled in with all the same kind of Contact Details that can be filled in for anyone on your *friends* list on the main YM program. I haven't checked to see if this info is kept on Yahoo Servers or our own computers. I did a test on one of my own other Yahoo ID's and then signed back into the main YM program which then "Disconnected" me from the Yahoo Mail Chat version of YM. I then viewed the Contact Details for my other Yahoo ID and sure enough, the change I had made was there so that kind of proves that the "Contacts" listed under Yahoo Mail Chat is synced with the main Yahoo Messenger program, at least as far as contacts/friends are concerned and any edits made to their contact information.
I hope that explains things better from my end.. and answers your questions but let me know if you still have any other questions.
Lenny Vasbinder
Skype - LennyTheComputerGuy
YM - LennyTheComputerGuy
My Yahoo Messenger related blogs:
http://lennythecomputerguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Yahoo%20Messenger
-----Original Message-----
From: Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 6:17 AM
To: Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Y!M] Re: Need clarification : Messenger client and web messenger Contacts
Thanks for this long comprehensive reply. In fact after emailing a Yahoo! employee I got an answer to my problem. This explain the core of my problem being that messenger contacts lists are not the same, should I use the client of the web version in mail.
Here is what I was told:
-----
"- The Address Book stores private info you know about other people. We allow you to store a Messenger ID for people you know without inviting them to be Messenger Buddies.
- The Messenger Buddy list is a separate list of people who you have invited to be Messenger Buddies. This is NOT synced with the Address Book (but often is coincidentally in sync).
- Almost all Messenger clients get your Buddy List first, then fills it in with Address Book data. Mail, in contrast, gets your Address Book data first and fills it in with Messenger data (online status).
IMHO Mail should act the same as other Messenger clients and get your buddy list first. This is being reviewed but not do not expect a change in the near future.
Do you mind if I share your email with the Product Managers who are currently reviewing this behavior?"
----
Now hopefully I can find a way to replicate my contacts.
And my reply:
-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny The Computer Guy
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 10:18 AM
To: 'Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Y!M] Re: Need clarification : Messenger client and web messenger Contacts
That's what I said in my first reply! ;-)
As far as which version of YM you use, the main YM program has the most options but if all you want to do is be able to send IM's back and forth, then any version will work.
HOWEVER (I guess I could have said BUT, since there's always a BUT... lol)... when using the Yahoo WebMessenger or Yahoo Mail Chat version's IF you save your archives of chat sessions, they will NOT be saved in your archives (although I do recall that Yahoo was going to give people the option of saving their archives on Yahoo's servers). ONLY your chats done on the main YM program will save into your archives on your computer.
I'm still not sure what you mean by "a way to replicate my contacts". As Yahoo also said in their reply, your YM contacts/friends are the same no matter which version of YM you are using. AND... on the main YM program, your Yahoo Mail contacts also get added to your friends list at the bottom under the folder, Address Book. You may have to click the arrow to expand that list if you want to see them all.
Lenny Vasbinder
Skype - LennyTheComputerGuy
YM - LennyTheComputerGuy
My Yahoo Messenger related blogs:
http://lennythecomputerguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Yahoo%20Messenger
-----Original Message-----
From: Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com
On Behalf Of
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 11:19 AM
To: Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Y!M] Re: Need clarification : Messenger client and web messenger Contacts
OK.
If you want:
people that show up online in Yahoo! are different than people who show up online in the messenger client. Or for exemple, if I want to chat with someone in Y!Mail, I'm asked to first add this person as a contact, but then when I login later in the Yahoo messenger desktop client it does not show up in my contact list.
That's why there is no synchronization between the two messenger contact lists. And obviously there are several databases.
That's why I want to be able to replicate my contacts which ever messenger I am using
Anyway i find all this very confusing
And my reply:
-----Original Message-----
From: Lenny The Computer Guy [mailto:LennyTheComputerGuy@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2010 12:39 PM
To: 'Yahoo_Messenger@yahoogroups.com'
Subject: RE: [Y!M] Re: Need clarification : Messenger client and web messenger Contacts
When you added them in Yahoo Mail Chat, did they add you back and allow you to see them? If they didn't, then that may be why they're not showing up. When adding people on YM, if they don't add back, it shows up as Pending but I'm not sure if the Pending thing transfers over to the other YM versions on the web.
Hang on while I test this....
(Jeopardy Music)
OK. I just signed into Yahoo Mail under one Yahoo ID, call it 1st ID, and then opened Yahoo Mail Chat or YM in Yahoo Mail, which caused that ID to get signed out of YM. Then I manually added another Yahoo ID, called 2nd ID, that I have. Of course, it showed that 2nd ID as offline, since it was. I then sent a test message to that 2nd ID also.
I then signed into YM under that 2nd ID and I got the offline message from the 1st ID BUT I did not get an add-request to the 2nd ID that I had added from the 1st ID... so it seems the "adding" of a contact on Yahoo Mail Chat (or YM in Yahoo Mail) doesn't send the same kind of add-request as happens when you add someone from the regular YM program.
Next, I signed out of the 2nd ID on the main YM program and signed back into the 1st ID. That 2nd ID that I had added as a contact in the Yahoo Mail Chat (or YM in Yahoo Mail) DID NOT show up as a friend/contact in the main YM BUT did show up as a new "contact" in the Address Book group of "friends" on the main YM program
So.. it seems that when adding a contact from either WebMessenger or Yahoo Mail Chat (aka YM in Yahoo Mail), it will add them as an address book contact for Yahoo Mail, which will show up on your friends list under the Address Book group but it doesn't add them as a normal "friend" in one of your other groups.
I had a feeling this would happen since, when adding a friend from Yahoo Mail Chat, it did not offer me an option as to which group I would like to add the new contact. I have groups for "Business & Customers", Family & Close Friends" and then all other "Friends". On my older Yahoo ID's, I also have groups for people I have not chatted with in over two years as those will be deleted from the main list of friends (but kept in my address book group) since Yahoo only allows 500 friends... at least that's the last count I remember them allowing. I know that if I don't delete people once in a while, my friends list fills up and YM prompts me that I have to delete someone before adding someone new. Since figuring that out a long time ago, at the beginning of each new year, I start a new group of "Friends" with the year in front of it, like 2008-Friends, 2009-Friends, 2010-Friends and next year, 2011-Friends and for my non-business and non-family/close friends, as I chat with these *other* "Friends", I move them into the new year's group and this also lets me know that the people in the 2008 group have not replied or been online in over two years and it's probably OK to delete them from my friends list (but I still leave them in my address book... just in case they pop up again). I keep my YM set to ONLY show Online Contacts so I can quickly see if someone from an old group signs in... then I look at the archived chats for that person and decide if I should send them a "Long time no see" type IM or just delete them.
I hope that clarifies things... or at least leaves you in such a state of confusion where only overly medicating (or drinking a bunch of adult beverages) will fix things. It is still the weekend... at least here in the USA. LOL
Lenny Vasbinder
Skype - LennyTheComputerGuy
YM - LennyTheComputerGuy
My Yahoo Messenger related blogs:
http://lennythecomputerguy.blogspot.com/search/label/Yahoo%20Messenger
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