Quote (BuzzLiteYear @ Mon, 5 Oct 2009, 12:17)
Rip off of MSN is why.
I've used this icon for over 6 years now.

It was always there next to Contact. It's a consolidation of two images, and removal of an entire vertical line of text, which makes for a faster and cleaner display.
It's not coming back. I've been phasing it out for years now, but was waiting for IE6 usage to decrease (transparent png support without "hack fixes")