While Yahoo is one of the older online tech companies, it has continued to innovate and improve in the most unexpected ways. For example, in the last 10 years, Yahoo acquired the popular social media site Tumblr and photo hosting site Flickr and helped them both flourish. It also acquired the popular comedy "Community" and will release new weekly episodes starting March 17 as part of its new video streaming service.
While those are all good things, they pale in comparison with how Yahoo's latest innovation could change the way we engage with passwords. The internet conglomerate announced its new "on-demand" password service at its SXSW event on Sunday. This new security system would let users log into Yahoo without using a conventional password. Instead, Yahoo users can request and receive "on-demand" passwords for their accounts. So whenever a user wants to log into their account, they'll visit the site's log-in page, click the "Send my password" button and then receive a randomly generated password sent to their phone via SMS. This password can only be used once. However, Yahoo did not mention how long the password would be active.
Dylan Casey, Yahoo's vice president of product management, believes that this new update "is the first step to eliminating passwords." A product like this would allow customers to gain access to old Yahoo accounts, decrease the possibility of hackers guessing their password as well as prevent customers from worrying about remembering a long complicated password.
CNET notes, "The process feels like a common process for logging into websites called two-factor authentication, where you first enter your own password, then enter a second password the company sends to your phones."
On-demand passwords are currently available on Yahoo.com
