In 2009 Yahoo made a big splash in the industry by saying they will only hold on to search data for 90 days. It was a very short amount of time to retain search queries but Yahoo did it.
Now Yahoo is reversing that decision and upping it from 3 months to 18 months.
The LA Times first reported this saying:
Yahoo Inc. said it would begin keeping records of its users’ search engine queries for at least 18 months, abandoning an earlier policy under which it kept data for only three months."Over the past several years it’s clear that the Internet has changed, our business has changed, and the competitive landscape has changed," Anne Toth, a policy executive at Yahoo, wrote in a blog post. "We have gone back to the drawing board to ensure that our policies will support the innovative products we want to deliver for our consumers."
This is interesting because Microsoft has a 6 month policy. So here, Microsoft will only have 6 months of search history whereas Yahoo will hold onto it for a year or so longer. Microsoft and Yahoo are search partners.
I guess Yahoo has little to lose and a lot to gain from this policy change. At least that is the way I see it.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
