Many people have asked me “What is this emoticon in Messenger for?” Well it’s a simple answer. There is a new marketing feature based around a charity event to promote Windows Live Search as well as generating money for charity.

Every time a Messenger is released as a full milestone, a charity event kicks off and a new emoticon is released. The person who bids for the highest emoticon goes into the final product. and were both auctioned off after the 7.5 and the 8.0 release, not sure about the 7.0 release but there was one, and now there is a new emoticon which every time you use it, generates you money.

I urge everyone, until the 31st March when the emoticon expires, put *9mil or *oxfam in your name to create the emoticon on Windows Live Messenger so that every time you talk to someone, it comes up in a conversation thus getting the most out of the offer.