I do Yahoo?

I have noticed recently that Yahoo have changed their authentication system. It changed before they introduced their flashy new Web 2.0 site, too. Previously, the login was tracked via a cookie with a 24-hour timeout, which meant one login a day at most even if you rebooted. The new system is browser session based so close your browser and it forgets your login session and even your id. I used to be a fan of the old way as it was very simple. It would be interesting to find out why they did it. Perhaps the new site needed it to be this way. The other change is that the default login screen which appears when you go to "mail.yahoo.com.au" is HTTPS by default. This suggests maybe a general tightening of their security policy.

As an aside, the new site is nifty and AJAX-ey but without breaking any new ground. Keyboard shortcuts are nice, although I haven't completely gotten used to them - and have the site doing funny things as a result. One funny note: if you are a poor sucker who still uses Internet Explorer instead of a real browser, the Javascript activity results in a whole barrage of those annoying 'click' sounds anytime you do anything!