We love OpenID. We’re so hopelessly, head-over-heels, eye-battingly infatuated with the possibility of single sign-ons (SSOs), in fact, that we’ve launched GetOpenID.com, our very own OpenID server and registrar. Oh, and we’ll use it to fully integrate OpenID with all our projects and contracts.
Six Apart (creators of TypeKey and Movable Type), LiveJournal, and VeriSign have already integrated OpenID, and the Wikimedia Foundation (creator of Wikipedia) has announced their intent to support OpenID (see the video).
So what is OpenID? It’s a decentralized identity management system that allows you to sign on to OpenID-enabled sites without having to register or create a new account. If you’re the type of user who comments or posts to several blogs, message boards, and wikis, you know what a pain remembering and managing dozens of usernames and passwords can be. With OpenID, however, you only need one username—your OpenID “identity”—and it’ll work on any site that accepts OpenID.
Still not convinced? OpenID allows you to delegate your identity to a URL simply by adding two lines of code to the header. Instead of getopenid.com/fourkitchens, I could log in to any OpenID-enabled site as simply FourKitchens.com, and Four Kitchens’ URL will appear as the byline for any post or comment I make. (Hey, marketing professionals: are the branding possibilities making you drool yet?)
Want to know more? Get your own OpenID, then check out OpenID.net for specs and documentation.
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