Never fill out a profile page again using OpenID!
I’ve read about OpenID many of times over the last year or so and all though it seems like a great idea I didn’t feel it had the backing on large companies to really gain steam and become a standard. Last month the OpenID idea caught my attention again when I read an article on how Yahoo has begun to use OpenID and they are now incorporating it into their site. Since then it seems a bunch of other big name Internet companies(Google, Microsoft,IBM) are jumping on board and if it continues to grow this could be on the best things to hit the Internet since the 90’s bubble burst.
The idea behind OpenID is you can login to any site that supports it by using your personal OpenID URL instead of having to sign up, fill out forms, and login using a unique username/password for each site. Basically you will only have to fill out one profile page with your personal information(all though you can have others) and you only have to remember one username and password to access tons of sites(with more added daily).
OpenID can be confusing at first but once you’ve tried it and understand how it works you will be amazed at how simple it is. Here is a little example of how easy it is to use.
For this example I’m going to use the site http://www.wishlistr.com. This site was easy to setup and it looks nice, some of the other sites I’ve been to that support OpenID where broken or hard to navigate; wishlistr is a good starting point for people new to OpenID.
First things first, you need to get an OpenID URL. Some of you will already have one and you don’t even know it…if you use AOL, LiveJournal, SmugMug and dozens of other site you already have an OpenID account. If you don’t currently have one or you don’t want to use the one you have you can use one of the free providers out there and create a new one. It doesn’t matter since one of the great things about OpenID is you can change it anytime. For example, I signed up for www.myopenid.com because I liked their site and what they offer. My OpenID with them is http://ryan.r.detzel.myopenid.com/.
Now that you have your OpenID you can use this when you’re ready to login to any site that supports OpenID. Using wishlistr for our example you can head over to their site and click on the Login link. On most login pages OpenID is not the first option, often you will have to look around for a link to login with an OpenID…on the wishlistr page it’s right under the Sign In button. Click the OpenID login link and you’re brought to another page where you enter your OpenID url, this is the URL your OpenID provider gave you when you signed up(Mine being http://ryan.r.detzel.myopenid.com). Enter your URL and you’re redirected to your providers page to confirm you identity. You enter your username and password and then give the site(wishlistr in this case) permission to access your information and confirm your identity. You’re then redirected back to the original site and you’re all set! No signup forms, no new usernames and passwords…no hassle.
All though this process was rather easy the OpenID standard is still rather new so it’s not implemented all that well on most sites. I would say out of the ten sites I signed up for only two I would consider easy and the others were kind of a pain. I do suggest you give it a try especially if a site you frequently visit offers it because I have a feeling as more and more companies jump aboard you will start to see the OpenID login box at more and more of your favorite sites.
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