socialmedian: Google is Now an OpenID Provider

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Google is Now an OpenID Provider

Source: ReadWriteWeb

Oct 29, 2008

Summary

This is turning out to be quite a good week for OpenID, an increasingly popular mechanism for creating and managing a single identity across the Internet. On Monday, Microsoft announced that it would give every Windows Live user an OpenID account, and today, Google announced a very similar plan. Google will allow web services to join a limited test of an API based on the OpenID 2.0 protocol that will give Google Account users the option to sign into websites with their Google credentials and without having to sign up for a new account at those sites.

Sponsor

Among the launch partners for this new API are Zoho, Plaxo, and Buxfer.

Don't Mention OpenID

One of the key results of Yahoo's OpenID usability study was that users did not understand OpenID and what its logo stands for. Instead, Yahoo promoted the idea of giving users a sign-in button that simply said "Sign In with a Yahoo! ID." Google and its partners are taking a similar route and are basically bypassing any mention of OpenID itself in favor of a simple message saying "Sign in with a Google Account."