OpenID is dead simple to use, yet when I read explanations about it, I want to shoot myself. The one problem it solves, and solves well for the paranoid among us, is eliminating the need for different usernames/passwords at every site we visit. Even for those that keep a single username/password at every site they use, its a saviour because you no longer have to worry that if one of your accounts get hacked, all your accounts are compromised. Here’s how to use OpenID:
- Get an account with myopenid.com
- Wherever you see this icon
, just enter in your “myaccount.myopenid.com” address, and you can verify your identity through myopenid.com. - f you correctly identify yourself, myOpenID will tell the 3rd party site to let you in.
That’s it! I wish someone had explained it to me like this when it first came out. Even to this day, descriptions of OpenID can be frustratingly verbose, severely hampering its adoption.
I am visiting this topic because there seems to be a perception that OpenID is on its way down due to its complexity in comparison to the recently released Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect services. While both are valiant efforts, I don’t like the idea of associating my highly personal gmail or facebook account with the multitude of sites out there. I like OpenID, I like the idea of having a dedicated & specialized company taking care of my credentials; I like the fact that I don’t have to implicitly give out my email everytime I want to try a new service. I also like the fact that as of this writing, there are over 31,000 sites that offer OpenID support, and the numbers keep increasing at exponential rates.
