EMOTICONS

“Emoticon (“icon mood“) is used in Instant Messaging. Nowadays it is unthinkable to write messages without emoticons whose function is to display the mood or facial expression of sender. Emotion is often used to alert recipients of the message to the real meaning of the message and may improve interpretation of plain text. Emoticons help compensate for the nonverbal aspect of communication in the virtual world of instant messages. This paper reviews styles that are now in use in the world, the history of origin of emoticons and their property rights