Larry Magid: Yahoo To Offer Inactive Email Addresses To Other Users

SUNNYVALE (KCBS) — Internet giant Yahoo is giving some users a chance to grab email addresses that were previously unavailable. The company announced that it is resetting accounts that have been inactive for more than a year and making those usernames available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Its good news for the people looking for a username that might be used by someone else, but it could be bad news for the person who loses their email address.

I use Yahoo! as a backup. I don't log in often, but it's where I send my Gmail in case that's down. One thing I read was that if users who have not signed in for a year can actually lose their accounts.

What I did was log in, click on a few mails and it was done. I suggest any Yahoo! users who haven't logged in regularly to do the same.

For the new folks, it does mean a chance to get an email address by someone who isn't using it and doesn't care about it. But if the address gets turned over, I hope that people aren't getting each other's email.

But I do see why they're doing it. Yahoo is a company that's been around for a long time and they are trying to clear the slate. Someone could have signed up for Larry@yahoo.com 15 years ago and have long forgotten about it.

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