Yahoo is resetting email accounts that have not been used for at least 12 months and issuing them to other users.
The company said in a blog post that it was freeing up the dormant email IDs to give its current and new users 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,” wrote Jay Rossiter, Yahoo’s senior vice president for platforms, in a blog post Wednesday.
By mid-July, users will get to apply for IDs of their choice, and will find out which one they have got by mid-August.
While trying to attract new users and retain current active users with IDs of their choice, the company is also giving inactive users the opportunity to retain them. “All you have to do is log on to any Yahoo! product before July 15th,” Rossiter wrote. In future, these accounts will remain active by signing in at least once every 12 months, according to a Yahoo help notice, titled “We want you back.”
The company didn’t specify how many accounts were currently dormant.
Yahoo is attempting to attract more users to its products like Flickr, mail, weather and search. The Yahoo email ID also gives an user access to tailored content like “sports scores for your favorite teams, weather in your hometown, and news that matters to you,” Rossiter wrote.
The Internet company introduced a new design for its mail in December, with the promise that users would be able to get through their emails faster than before. Users were prompted to switch to the new mail version or redirected to a bare-bones basic version in early June, as older versions including Mail Classic were being discontinued.