LiveWords is a simple and convenient way to search on the Web for more information about any topic, word, or phrase that comes up in an IM conversation.

Just highlight a word or phrase in the message window by dragging with your mouse, and the LiveWords symbol, a purple magnifying glass, will appear next to your selected text. Do a "mouse-over" on that symbol (that is, position your cursor over the symbol without clicking) and a window will open containing links to information and search results on the text you've highlighted.

The information shown when you activate a LiveWords depends on what information Yahoo! can find for you. Most LiveWords will result in search results. In addition to these; you will often see news headlines, maps, stock charts, images, definitions, and links to other Yahoo! properties, if appropriate.

If you wish, you can have Yahoo! Messenger suggest words and phrases that are likely to yield search results of interest to you, based on categories that you choose. Matches will then be underlined in your message window with a dotted line. To enable this feature, go to the Messenger menu in the main Yahoo! Messenger window and click Preferences. Click the "LiveWords" category to select it. Make sure the checkbox is checked for automatic highlighting of search words, and then click each of the listed categories in turn, choosing "High," "Normal," or "None" for each category, depending on your interests.

You can turn off any LiveWords, whether it was one you created by highlighting the text or was a suggestion indicated by a dotted underline. Simply open the LiveWords window by mousing over the purple magnifying glass and click the down arrow near the upper right corner. Then click "Turn off this LiveWords." The search word will be added to your "black list." You can clear all the stored words from your black list by clicking the "Clear Black List" button in the Preferences dialog box.

Privacy Note: The text tagging by the automatic highlighting option in LiveWords takes place entirely on your own computer. Yahoo! does not read the text of your messages in order to make LiveWords suggestions. A list of possible suggestions is routinely downloaded to your machine based on the categories and interest levels you have specified. During your IM conversations, the Yahoo! Messenger application on your machine compares the text of messages you send and receive against the list of possible suggestions.