OpenID is Catching On: Yahoo and Google Onboard

Jan 23, 2008 by Matt | Posted in General 3 Comments

Well, it looks like OpenID is catching on. Two major companies (Google and Yahoo) are slowly launching support for the “single sign-in” standard. On a related note, I voiced some concerns last April about OpenID. They seem very relevant nowadays.

Yahoo is implementing OpenID alongside their existing Yahoo ID system, giving Yahoo users OpenIDs. According to openid.yahoo.com, you will be able to enter the URL “yahoo.com” into an OpenID box, bouncing you over to Yahoo where you can login with your Yahoo ID. Does this mean they’ve got their system set-up so you don’t get a unique OpenID URL (like id.yahoo.com/your_yahooid)? Another worrying note: Yahoo is providing OpenIDs, but are they going to allow people with non-Yahoo OpenIDs log-in to Yahoo sites (Flickr, for example)? Also, what’s to stop Yahoo from preventing your Yahoo-provided OpenID from logging you in to certain sites (i.e. competitors)?

Google’s Blogger.com will soon be an OpenID provider. Once this new feature makes it out of draft and into the main feature set, your blog’s URL will be your OpenID URL. If your blog is at you.blogspot.com, that’s your OpenID. It even works if you have your own domain name. Now, will they start allowing OpenID sign-ins with other Google services? Who knows, they might.

  • http://www.ruelicke.net/ Marco Ruelicke.net

    I got an openID account at myopenid.com but I rarely use it. Although it is very convenient I always have a bad feeling. Who knows? Maybe someone manages to steal my openID?Even if Google provides openIDs for their other applications, I will stick to the usual login.

  • http://www.webmaster-source.com Matt

    Exactly. I avoid OpenID when I can also. For similar reasons, plus it just seems too weird.

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