Last Wednesday, I (along with Sasha, Jayvee, Aileen, Juned, Markku, Mike, and Marcelle) dropped by Yehey’s offices to check out some of the new projects they’re working on: Yehey Tol and Dangka.

Yehey Tol

Basically, Tol is a Yahoo Messenger clone. Right down to the sign in screen, the smileys, and even a the buzz feature. But apparently Yehey hopes some Filipino touches and a better file transfer function, not to mention its compatibility with YM, will attract some users.

For one thing, the sign in screen is a lot more entertaining. Instead of a giant yellow smiley, a cartoonish guy waits on top of the username and password prompts. Once you successfully go online, he raises both arms in joy and screams “Yehey!”

The Tol smileys are also not your typical yellow circles. They’re also cartoony, and even match your specified gender (boy smileys for boys, girl smileys for girls). You can even give your contacts a double one-finger salute!

And when a contact buzzes you, instead of the corny screen shake and the appearance of BUZZ! An avatar (male or female, depending on your contact’s provided gender) actually pops out from the lower right corner!

By far the most functional of Tol’s features is its compatibility with Yahoo Messenger. You can concurrently sign in with your Yahoo ID, and send IMs to both your Tol and YM contacts. And when you use a smiley in Tol, your Yahoo contacts will receive the equivalents.

This support for YM is a good move on Yehey’s part, because Yahoo Messenger is so popular here that most people only use IM software that supports Yahoo IDs.

Another great feature is a better file transfer function, at least compared to YM. When sending a contact a file in YM, you have to wait for them to successfully download the file before you can go offline. Not so with Yehey Tol. If your contact is offline, the file is stored on the company’s servers, and they can download it the next time they sign in. Of course, this only works with Yehey contacts.

You can download Yehey Tol from yehey.com/tol. You’ll need to sign up for a Yehey ID though.

Dangka

Dangka on the other hand is a persistent Flash-driven online world where you can go around Filipino-looking or -themed places and play some mini games to win some Bretas, or the in-game currency. You can also interact with other Yehey members logged on of course.

Yehey is looking to push Dangka as a casual place for Yehey users to explore. They also hope to use the service to help sponsor partners interact with customers in a more entertaining way. I do hope they implement my idea of fastfood chains taking delivery orders through a company avatar.

The game is also populated with NPCs who help you find your way around by telling you where you are and what you have to do. Their names are really hilarious, and we were all laughing as characters like “Kirk Doglas” (a dog) and “Juan Tree Gil” (a tree) were introduced. And they happen to be avatars on Yehey Tol too.

That’s all I can say about Dangka, since it’s not available online while they’re still smoothing the kinks out. But Yehey promises to open a public beta by August 4.

What do You Think?

At first glance, both Yehey Tol and Dangka seem to be just copies of Yahoo Messenger and Second Life/There Philippines. But I think there’s a lot of potential here. I’m using Tol right now, and it’s pretty functional, and it’s easy for Filipinos to identify with both services.

I leave you now, dear readers, with another question: based on what I’ve written here, what are your first impressions?