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The original smileys (or smilies) were ASCII representations of human-like expressions. Emoticons were first introduced in instant messenging software, such as AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), MSN messenger or Yahoo messenger. They are a small graphic representation of the same expressions as the one represented originally with smileys.
The was messengers, and now forum software, use emoticons, is by interpreting the user typing in a smiley face code, and rendering it as an emoticon in the page / software. This page presents the most usual correspondance between regular smileys and classic emoticons. We used one of the most common smiley sets to present the correspondance. Many more sets are available in our smileys sets database.
| Smileys | Emotions | Emoticons |
| :) or :-) | Smile or happy |  or  |
| :D or :-D | Grin |  |
| :o or :-o | Surprised |  |
| :p or :-p | Tongue |  |
| :| or :-| | Sleepy |  |
| :( or :-( | Sad |  |
| ;( or ;-( | Crying |  |
| 8o or 8-o | Confused |  |