Yahoo is giving its users a chance to switch to a shorter, more convenient user ID. In July, the company will reset each and every Yahoo ID that's been dormant for a period of 12 months, once again freeing up those usernames for public registration. Describing the cleaning as Yahoo's "next big push," senior vice president Jay Rossiter writes that "we want to give our loyal users and new folks the opportunity to sign up for the Yahoo! ID they’ve always wanted."
In mid-July, existing and new users will have the opportunity to reserve their ideal username. Unfortunately you won't know whether you've successfully scored your top pick until a month later, in August. If you've been ignoring a Yahoo account for months (or even years), this doesn't necessarily mean you'll be losing it. As long as you sign into any Yahoo service before July 15th, your ID will remain yours to keep.
Here's what you need to know:
If you’ve got a Yahoo ID that you haven’t used in a while, you’ve got two months before Yahoo gives it to someone else.
Yahoo announced today that it’s resetting inactive user IDs to free them up for users who might want them. People who haven’t logged into Yahoo for at least 12 months have until July 15 to do so.
The process seems fairly simple: First, Yahoo will allow users to apply for whatever inactive IDs they want. Then, in August, the company will reveal who gets what. (It’s not clear how this affects email accounts, which we’ve asked Yahoo about.)
Yahoo has been around since 1994, giving it nearly 20 years to accumulate countless inactive accounts. Considering how many more users it expects to add with, say, its Tumblr acquisition, I’d say this is a pretty smart move.
Of course, the move also has the ulterior benefit of getting estranged users back on Yahoo again, even if it’s just for a few seconds.
The big question, though, is this: Just how many inactive accounts does Yahoo have by this point? We can only guess.
Thanks for the news. I just login to activate my yahoo account.
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