Yahoo! starts dishing out inactive email IDs to new users

It’s recycling season! Yahoo! has officially started to take requests to hand out old, unused account names already. Users who’ve already put in requests for a username on or before August 7 will start receiving notifications if the username of their choice is available now.

Users had to fill out a wishlist, listing down the top five user IDs they wished to receive. If you’ve already done that, now is when Yahoo! will start notifying you if the username you wanted can be made yours. If you don’t get the username, you will automatically be put on to a Watchlist launched by Yahoo! Your stint on the Watchlist will be free of cost.

Get recycled IDs for $1.99

If you weren’t a part of the Wishlist activity by Yahoo!, you can cut the queue and jump on to the shorter Watchlist for $1.99 (Rs 127 approx.). Being on this Watchlist will let you track up to five usernames for three years. If and when one of the names become available from the Watchlist, Yahoo! will hold it for you for the next 14 days during which you can claim it as yours.

Yahoo! came up with this unique concept of doling out old, unused usernames to patrons who would want to make use of a simple one. So account names like david@yahoo.com could be up for grabs if David hasn’t accessed the account in a while. Of course, the biggest concern on everyone’s mind right now is privacy. How do we know if a mail that ends up coming to new David’s inbox does not belong to old David?

Yahoo! has been working with services like Facebook to ensure that if an account is reset, a header system will reject messages meant for old owners but many are still skeptical. We’ll have to wait and watch for any reports of old messages reaching new owners of email IDs to see how well Marissa Mayer’s new brainwave is working.