User Tracking Yahoo Style

February 5, 2009

Yahoo, if the news item in Web Pro News, is spot on, Yahoo is taking on an interesting challenge. “Yahoo to Start Keeping Tabs on Your Searches” by Chris Crumb documents Yahoo’s me-too of some discontinued Google features. Mr. Crumb said:

Search Pad for the Yahoo search engine. Essentially, it keeps track of your searches, figures out when you are researching things, and stores results of interest in a virtual notepad you can use for reference.

The write up provides links to additional information. The usage tracking implications are fascinating. The core of the write up is an interview with Tom Chi, Senior Director of Product Management with Yahoo Search. One of the most interesting comments was:

“This [service] follows the same data retention policy we have across Yahoo!,” explains Chi. “We recently announced a new policy. Under the new policy, Yahoo! will anonymize user log data within 90 days with limited exceptions for fraud, security and legal obligations. Yahoo! will also expand the policy to apply not only to search log data but also page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks.

Usage tracking yields high value data. How will the user, law enforcement, and marketing communities respond? It’s too soon to tell.

Stephen Arnold, February 5, 2009

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Online (general), Privacy, Search, Yahoo

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.