In a total dick move today, Yahoo announced it will expunge user data after only 90 days. Previously, Yahoo would hold onto user data for 13 months.
Currently, Google removes PII (Personally Identifiable Information) after 9 months and Microsoft keeps PII for 18 months. However, Microsoft agreed last week to drop that down to six months of data retention if the other major players would agree to do so as well.
The major search engines have been under a great deal of scrutiny lately by European officials to better protect users' privacy. US Congressman Rep. Edward J Markey (D-Mass) and Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications has been spearheading the movement to data protection here in the US. Markey said in a statement today, "I urge other leading online companies to match or beat the commitments announced by Yahoo."
Essentially what Yahoo did today was to say, "we can't compete with you Google, so we are going to lower the playing field in hopes of gaining back some market share!" Don't get me wrong, I have been a huge fan of Yahoo for a long time, but when they make moves to try to limit other players in the field, all bets are off. Google has a great ability to analyze billions upon billions of data points across long periods of time to bring us extremely relevant search results. Yahoo can't do this as effectively and they know this. If you limit the Google scope to just analyze 90 days worth of information, you are without a doubt going to make the results less effective and we will all lose out if that happens.
Yahoo, why don't you just die already! Your like a one-legged marathon runner forcing all the other competitors to hop on one leg.
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