Yahoo! Shortens Data Retention Period

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Oh Tindytim, they need your IP address to better tie their on-page ads to your last 18 months of searches. By knowing that 18-months ago you searched for summer vacation destinations, they can provide better ads for your latest query on cold remedies. Google is a lot smarter than we, the simple computer users, so we have to trust they know better than we do.

To be more serious, I also don't understand why they need IPs. They process millions of queries and ads a second, so I can't imagine any single user could do anything to scew their algorithms in any meaningful way. I mean sure, they need to make sure that someone isn't scamming their Ads by sending thousands of clicks a second to a competitors link, but why they need to maintain that information for more than a day is unknown to me.
 
IP's are used for regional datamining. Makes it easier to monitor whats going on , and has been going on in specific areas of the nation/world
 
IP's are used for regional datamining. Makes it easier to monitor whats going on , and has been going on in specific areas of the nation/world

So they couldn't just keep the relevant information, and get rid of what's not needed? As in keeping some regional information, and deleting the IPs?
 
i have to agree with google.
i think yahoo's move is just an excuse for something, like reducing cost or jobs. keeping a log of millions of users for a long time is surely expensive.
 
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