Yahoo! to Stop Access to its Services with Google and Facebook IDs

Yahoo! is making an interesting move. The company will be preventing access to Yahoo! services using Facebook and Google IDs. The company has started gradual implementation of their most recent requirement by allowing only Yahoo! IDs be used to access some of its most popular services such as their photo-sharing site Flickr and Fantasy Sport. Yahoo! services are accessible to people using their Facebook and Google login credentials.

This came as a surprise because many companies, users and web services providers are calling for one secure and simple sign-in process across web services. It seems a step back for a company like Yahoo!, which is a member of the OpenID Foundation.

Company changes

Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, a former executive of Google, Inc. has been implementing several changes to the company since she joined Yahoo! in 2012. According to a company spokesperson, this is one of the processes being implemented to ignite fresh interest in the company’s web services and products. It is also one of the management moves to resurrect its revenue that has gone stagnant.

The requirement for registration and use of a Yahoo! ID before one can access the various services of the Internet portal will be rolled out gradually, according to the company statement. This is in line with their continuous process of improving user experience and providing more personalized service.

This latest move initiated by CEO Mayer reverses the Yahoo! company strategy implemented by former CEO Carol Bartz and adopted in 2010 up to 2011.

Since she came into office in 2012, CEO Mayer has already made several changes. Yahoo! came out with new versions of Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Mail. It also launched its Yahoo! News Digest mobile apps early this year. The news reading app presents 10 stories in brief with photos, tweets and maps twice a day. In 2013 the company rolled out the program to recycle inactive user IDs of Yahoo!. This allowed new users to take the email address that had not been used for more than a year. Yahoo! has quietly acquired 30 companies so far, created tech and food web magazines, improved Tumblr and as of January 13 this year has signed-up Katie Couric as its global news anchor for the company’s Yahoo! News, which is an ABC News affiliate.

First services affected by the change

The new sign-in process will affect the Yahoo! Sports Tourney Pick’Em. The service is concentrated on the NCAA, which starts on the 18th of March. The spokesperson also added that the change in the sign-in process for the Tourney Pick’Em will start on Monday while other Yahoo! services can still be accessed by users with their Facebook or Google IDs.

A timeframe has not yet been given but there is a certainty that the buttons to sign-in using Google and Facebook IDs will eventually be taken out from all of Yahoo! Internet services. This is a clear indication that Yahoo! wants to take control of its own content and services.

Photo credit: Taken by gaku under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.