In 2009 Yahoo made a big splash in the industry by saying they will only hold on to search data for 90 days. It was a very short amount of time to retain search queries but Yahoo did it.

Now Yahoo is reversing that decision and upping it from 3 months to 18 months.

The LA Times first reported this saying:

This is interesting because Microsoft has a 6 month policy. So here, Microsoft will only have 6 months of search history whereas Yahoo will hold onto it for a year or so longer. Microsoft and Yahoo are search partners.

I guess Yahoo has little to lose and a lot to gain from this policy change. At least that is the way I see it.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.