Industry Bigwigs Back OpenID Single Sign-On

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, and VeriSign have become the first corporate board members of the OpenID Foundation, strengthening its efforts to promote single sign-on across the internet.

Formed in June 2007, OpenID is a free digital identity technology that eliminates the need for internet users to remember multiple user names and passwords and gives them more control over the personal information they share with web sites. It also helps cut down on the amount of personal customer information businesses need to store, reducing the risk of that information being stolen.

“OpenID enables consumers to take control of their online identity, which in turn will drive trust, privacy, and security on the internet,” said Nico Popp, vice president of innovation at VeriSign.

This need for more innovative kinds of digital identifier technologies will only increase as social networking and user-generated content take hold.

So far OpenID log-ins are supported by more than 10,000 web sites.