Pick a name from the buddy list. Then try BUZZ — it shook the other person's whole window, and there was no way to turn it off.
To operateSet a status, try the smiley palette, and BUZZ. Your buddies sign in and out on their own.
2001–2010
Shut down July 2018.
The cybercafé's native tongue.
Before phones could hold a conversation, chat happened in a booth rented by the hour. Yahoo Messenger was the default client of the Nigerian cybercafé: buddy lists, away messages, avatars, and a BUZZ button that shook the other person's entire screen. Night browsing was priced by the hour and used accordingly.
On the record
BUZZ shook the recipient's window and played a tone — the only true attention weapon of the era.
Status could be set to Invisible, which everyone used and nobody believed.
Away messages were where you put song lyrics, in full.
Ran in cybercafés on shared Windows machines, often with the previous user still signed in.