Just when you thought Yahoo! was out of the game, they come out with a policy that is striking and bold right out from nowhere. I’m talking about a 90-day data retention policy, the best in the search engine business.
Following on the heels of MSN Live inviting both Yahoo! and Google to adopt a 6-month industry standard, Yahoo! decides to play its own game, proving that there is still some level of competition in the search engine game. The real issue is whether Yahoo! can turn that advantage into a market share gain.
It’s hard to imagine any of the search engines and pay per click advertising networks doing any better than three months. But what is unusually likable about Yahoo!s policy is that it also applies to ad clicks. That means that websites running your Yahoo! search ads would be opted in to that policy as well and if you advertise on the Yahoo! search portal you are helping Internet surfers protect their privacy for a longer period of time. And to think, Europe is leading the way on this issue – not the U.S.
