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Yahoo on Wednesday announced a new data-retention policy, but on Thursday privacy experts were still scratching their heads about what the policy really means.

Although it appeared Yahoo was setting an industry standard for data retention with a promise to anonymize user log data within 90 days (with limited exceptions for fraud, security and legal obligations), privacy advocates say the announcement doesn't make clear whether Yahoo is really protecting users' privacy any better than its rivals.

Yahoo on Wednesday announced a new data-retention policy, but on Thursday privacy experts were still scratching their heads about what the policy really means.

Although it appeared Yahoo was setting an industry standard for data retention with a promise to anonymize user log data within 90 days (with limited exceptions for fraud, security and legal obligations), privacy advocates say the announcement isn't clear.

One of Yahoo Inc.'s largest shareholders, Ivory Investment Management LP, is urging the Internet company to pursue a sale of its search unit to Microsoft.

In a letter to the company's board, the investment firm proposed a deal Wednesday in which Microsoft would acquire Yahoo's search engine and Yahoo would retain 80 percent of revenue generated by search queries on its own site.

In the latest development in the ongoing Microsoft-Yahoo saga, Redmond is showing renewed interest in a search deal with its struggling rival. After several failed attempts to acquire all or part of Yahoo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company should ink a deal to acquire Yahoo's search business "sooner than later," according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft may not have acquired Yahoo's search business, but it has acquired what some may consider the next best thing. The software giant announced Thursday that it has hired Dr. Qi Lu, Yahoo's former vice president of engineering for search and advertising technology, to run its online-services group and focus on search advertising.

She did it again: Britney Spears was the most popular search term on Yahoo for the fourth year in a row -- her seventh time topping the list.

Spears bested World Wrestling Entertainment, Barack Obama, Miley Cyrus and the online game "RuneScape" as the five most-searched terms of 2008, the Web portal and search company announced Monday, a day before the singer released her new album "Circus."

Shares in troubled web portal Yahoo rose as much as 16 percent Tuesday after a report that former AOL chief executive Jonathan Miller was trying to raise funds to buy out all or part of the company.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Miller was talking to private equity firms and sovereign wealth fund managers to raise as much as 30 billion dollars to purchase the company at between 20 dollars and 22 dollars a share.

A report in the Sunday Times [of London] that Microsoft Corp. is in talks with Yahoo Inc. to buy the U.S Internet company's online search business for $20 billion is "total fiction," according to a key executive cited by an influential U.S. blog.

The Sunday Times, which did not cite its sources, said the proposal under discussion involves a complex transaction that would see the U.S. software giant support a new management team to take control of Yahoo.

Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang has resigned his role as CEO and Yahoo's board has initiated a search for his successor. Yang will return to his former role as chief yahoo as soon as the board finds a replacement. He will continue to serve on the board.

Yahoo's stock price rose with the announcement and was trading at $11.35 at mid-afternoon Tuesday, up from Monday's $10.63 close.

The 40-year-old Yang stepped into the CEO role at the board's request in June 2007 to lead the company through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.

Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang has resigned his role as CEO and Yahoo's board has initiated a search for his successor. Yang will return to his former role as chief yahoo as soon as the board finds a replacement. He will continue to serve on the board.

The 40-year-old Yang stepped into the CEO role at the board's request in June 2007 to lead the company through a strategic repositioning and transformation of its platform.