Yahoo puts inactive IDs up for grabs

In a bid to reward loyal users and encourage the departed to return, Yahoo is freeing up IDs (aka email addresses) that have been inactive for at least 12 months.

If you haven't logged into your Yahoo account, you have until July 15 to do. After that, your ID along with all the other inactives, will go on the open market, so to speak.

Yahoo has been around for nearly two decades, plenty of time for the tech company to rack up a lot of inactive users. Yahoo doesn't say how many inactive users it has, nor does the company explain what will happen to emails stored on inactive accounts that are subsequently reset and given away.

Here's the bulk of the announcement from Jay Rossiter, SVP, Platforms at Yahoo:

Over the last few months, we’ve made exciting changes to some of your favorite Yahoo! products, like Flickr, Mail, Weather, the Homepage and Search. Today, I’m excited to share with you our next big push: we want to give our loyal users and new folks the opportunity to sign up for the Yahoo! ID they’ve always wanted.

If you’re like me, you want a Yahoo! ID that’s short, sweet, and memorable like albert@yahoo.com instead of albert9330399@yahoo.com. A Yahoo! ID is not only your email address, it also gives you access to content tailored to your interests – like sports scores for your favorite teams, weather in your hometown, and news that matters to you.

So, how are we making these Yahoo! IDs available? We’re freeing up IDs, that have been inactive for at least 12 months, by resetting them and giving them a fresh start. In mid July, anyone can have a shot at scoring the Yahoo! ID they want. In mid August, users who staked a claim on certain IDs can come to Yahoo! to discover which one they got.

What if you haven’t logged into Yahoo! for over a year, but want to keep your Yahoo! ID? It’s easy. All you have to do is log on to any Yahoo! product before July 15th.

Photo: Yahoo

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com