Yahoo on Wednesday confirmed that it will stop letting people sign into its online services using credentials from rival Internet titans Facebook or Google.

The shift began with the Yahoo Sports Tourney Pick'Em arena and will gradually expand to all of the company's online services and products, including photo-sharing website Flickr.

"We are moving towards requiring all users to access our service with a Yahoo username over time," the faded Internet search star said.

"Eventually, the sign in buttons for Facebook and Google will be removed from all Yahoo properties."

Yahoo portrayed the move as enabling the California-based firm to provide more personalized services and content to visitors, but it was also seen as part of a strategy to better target money-making ads.

Yahoo is bucking a trend of websites accepting Facebook or Google usernames and passwords to allow single online identities follow people about the Internet.

Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer has overhauled the company's offerings and launched digital magazines as part of an effort to revitalize the aging Internet pioneer and to be at the center of daily online habits.

She has made a priority of following people onto mobile devices, focusing on tailoring content to individual tastes while Microsoft search engine Bing does the heavy-lifting behind the scenes, crawling and indexing online content for Yahoo under the terms of a deal struck several years ago.

Meanwhile, Facebook last year unseated Yahoo as the second-place digital ad seller in the United States, according to industry tracker eMarketer.

Google remained the top digital ad seller with just shy of 40 percent of the US market, eMarketer reported.

Facebook announces steps to stop illegal gun sales
San Francisco (AFP) March 05, 2014 - Facebook is taking aim at people who are using the social network or Instagram photo-sharing platform to sell guns.

The social network will block members under 18 years of age from viewing pages or timeline posts reported to involve private gun sales and will set up online "checkpoints" warning people that such deals may be illegal.

"We will not permit people to post offers to sell regulated items that indicate a willingness to evade or help others evade the law," Facebook head of global policy management Monika Bickert said in a blog post.

People offering guns for sale on Facebook will not be allowed to indicate that background checks are not required or that sales will be done across state lines without involving licensed firearms dealers, Bickert noted.

The California-based company said that it worked with New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman and advocacy groups to modify policies to fight illegal gun sales.

"Responsible social media sites know that it is in no one's interest for their sites to become a 21st century black market in dangerous and illegal goods that place our families and communities at risk," Schneiderman said in a statement praising Facebook's move.

Facebook and Instagram will remove content that represents a "direct, credible risk" to users and notify police when appropriate, according to Bickert.

"By taking these unprecedented educational and enforcement steps, we've been able to strike an important balance in helping people express themselves, while promoting a safe and responsible community," she added.