Programs don't stay in dashboard???

Hi people. Just bought a macbook, and getting used to the sweetness of macs Just got an issue with installing programs though. I downloaded messenger and firefox. But every time i shutdown my mac, then say use next day and click on the messenger icon in dashboard it comes up with a ? as if its not there. I then have to go into the hard drive to find the downloaded file and open it tht way. Wondered what i'm doing wrong, and would appreciate any help Cheers

did you install it properly by dragging it from it's dmg file (if it came with one) into your application folder?

remain has posted this brief visual tutorial in a couple threads. it should really cut right through any confusion with the process.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64947

^ What Eric said about what I said. ;p

Also, what you're calling "Dashboard" is actually called the Dock. (the big bar with Application icons and the Trash)

The Dashboard is the 'environment' where the Mac OS X Widgets reside;
it appears if you press F12. (or is it Function F12 on MacBooks?)