the meaning of emoticon

(^3^)/

what does this mean?
thnks

To me it looks like a variation of a smiling face with a waving hand...

...and a pretty big nose.

It's a kissing face with a waving hand. The 3 is supposed to look like pursed up kissy lips haha

It kind of looks like a duck... you know like in a cartoon if it quacks.

Ok, I just looked on my own emoticons and it looks nothing like a quacking duck, haha. But could s/he have hit the wrong key. Or does s/he use it regularly?

Also does anyone know how to explain instant messenger to my japanese friend? She doesn't seem to have ever heard of it :/ Is there a japanese version of msn or windows messenger that I can mention so she gets what I mean?

I think this "pursed lips" is often used simply as a humorous/friendly facial expression, not necessarily "kiss" lips or "duck bills" lol.

Brian,
If you say "messenger" and if your friend has no idea, that means she is simply not familiar... I am Japanese and am using messenger often, it's just a matter of downloading it and making the correct language setting, so it's not that there is one program per country under different names or anything.... if you say "online chat program called Messenger" and if she doesn't get it, send her this link:

http://messenger.live.jp/

This is the top page for MSN Japan's Live Messenger.