8. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising: parsing the character sequence into an identifier and a location of the custom graphical emoticon in an emoticon object store in the sender; and storing the identifier and the location in a header of the message that includes the textual content with the emoticon-placeholding character sequence embedded therein.
8. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising: parsing the character sequence into an identifier and a location of the custom graphical emoticon in an emoticon object store in the sender; and storing the identifier and the location in a header of the message that includes the textual content with the emoticon-placeholding character sequence embedded therein. 9. The method as recited in claim 8 , wherein the identifier and the location comprise at least parts of an object name for the custom graphical emoticon.