Openid Simplifies Recalling Online Passwords
By JUSTIN WILLIAMS
During the day I have to remember several logins and passwords for the services and stores I use.
Gmail, Twitter, Amazon and most other sites on the Internet have a unique login and password they use to associate your information with their store or application. While applications such as 1Passwd for the Mac or Password Manager XP for Windows can help ease the online identity management frustrations, it would be ideal to have a single login that is used by all the sites you browse on the Web.
That’s what the OpenID initiative is aiming to do.
OpenID is a new technology that makes it easy for you to log in to a variety of Web sites and services using a single login and password. Instead of verifying your identity with a specific site such as Amazon, a company instead passes off the authentication to an OpenID server.
OpenIDs aren’t in the same username format you are most likely used to. Instead, OpenIDs take the format of a Web address. For example, if I want to log in to my Vox account, instead of logging in with a username or my e-mail address, I use my OpenID, which is http://
carpeaqua.myopenid.com.
Microsoft has a similar technology called Windows Live ID that it uses for
Hotmail, Xbox Live and other services, but it has yet to gain adoption because of security and privacy concerns. Giving all of your information to a company such as Microsoft and letting it track your every move on the Internet is not something many people would be comfortable with.
One of the great things about OpenID is that it is not owned by a single corporation or governing body. In fact, anyone can implement an OpenID server and allow users from around the world to authenticate against it. By allowing anyone to be an OpenID provider, you are able to choose who hosts your identity based on security and reliability.
The advantage companies have for implementing
OpenID versus a standard login and password system is that it lowers the barrier of entry for new users to try their services.
Instead of signing up for yet another account, they can use their OpenID authentication and allow the service to pull in information from their ID. In order to use your
OpenID on a site, that site must first implement support for the technology.
Companies such as AOL, Six Apart and Yahoo have implemented support for
OpenID, and others such as Digg and Microsoft have pledged to support it in the future. 37Signals, a Chicago-based Web application firm, offers several Web services that support OpenID.
You can log in to its Basecamp project management or Highrise contact management applications using your OpenID, and it will be authenticated against each of the services automatically. Along the top of the browser window, a black bar appears that lists each of the Basecamp and Highrise accounts you have authenticated against your OpenID.
The best place to get an OpenID in my opinion is through MyOpenID.com (www.myopenid.com). MyOpenID allows you to easily create an OpenID login for free that is usable by any site that supports the protocol. If you are an AIM or AOL user, you already have an OpenID. You can log in to any OpenID supporting site using the login of http://openid.aol.com/yourscreenname and your AOL password.
OpenID is still in its infancy and has yet to gain mainstream approval. The only way it can gain more widespread support is if you tell companies that you want them to support the platform.
Justin Williams is a local blogger and the owner of Second Gear, a local Web and software development firm. He can be reached at justin@secondgearllc.com.
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