Yesterday, the blogsophere was abuzz with news that Yahoo will be retaining data for 90 days. At Search Engine Land, Barry explains that “[t]he data policy is not just inclusive of their search data but also their page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks.”

The industry has been pretty quiet about anonymizing data since June 2007. But this new announcement, which shortens the length of data retention by more than a year compared to other engines, is a bit eye-opening. It’s also perceived as a great move on behalf of Yahoo and one that will put pressure on Google to do the same thing.

Well, it’s a great move on behalf of Yahoo if they actually remove all query information after 3 months (and not just IP information). After all, I can’t help but think about Thelma Arnold who was identified by her search behavior and not her actual IP location.

What, then, is Yahoo retaining after 90 days and what is Yahoo scrapping? We don’t know. Do you?

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld. More blog discussion is on Techmeme.