Unless you have been underground, you are aware that Digg is planning to dig OpenID. This after Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL are gearing up to it.
It sure is getting popular, but only on one front. There are more and also easier services who have started offering OpenIDs to invite the common man. However, the benefits of OpenID cannot be realized if applications and services do not start using it. Other than AOL and now Digg supporting it, there is no such news so that an entire mass of customers can benefit out of it. Of course, as a first step OpenID should get more popular with the developers, however, we cannot claim success unless the users can use it in many places.
Do not get me wrong, I am still enthusiastic and supportive of OpenID and efforts with it. However, I think we are ignoring the other front. We need to encourage Web services and applications to adopt it. I asked quite a lot of people if they thought OpenID would help on this blog, especially for the comments. But most of them were unsure if they would create an OpenID just for commenting on this blog, which is completely reasonable since this blog is not any prominent application of most out there. This would not be a problem if they realized that it will be useful not only here, but also in their everyday tasks with photos or videos or documents or music or forums on the Web. In my opinion this is not very apparent and needs to be highlighted.
A lot of my friends argue with me that single-signons with portals like Yahoo!, Google, and MSN already solve this problem for them. They use just one ID to access many services. What they are missing is that OpenID is about their identity. Of course these portals give them an identity, but it is valid only within that scope. I will not be able to use my Yahoo! ID to store photos on Zooomr, since they are different entities. OpenID can help you have the freedom of using services, which are not bound by companies, contracts or business collaborations. I think it is time that the bigwigs start acknowledging OpenID. Maybe they will not accept it rightaway, because there is still work being done, but their contribution in addressing the cons will be invaluable. Maybe a poll for web applications (like this one for the users) can make them think about considering it.
At the end of the day, the non-techie end user will not care about OpenID or single signons. What he/she will care about is benefit to them, which cannot be proved unless we start seeing more services accepting OpenID. That is reason this news from Digg is encouraging, but we need more, we are not there yet.
February 24th, 2007 at 10:14 am
I think you should go ahead and support it. OpenID isn’t mainstream yet, even with the internet saavy, but if you’re supporting it, then the people that do know about it will start using it. Others will see this and it’ll have some degree of the viral effect.
I would’ve used mine this time, filling out one input box instead of three!
February 25th, 2007 at 2:45 am
I would definitely suggest supporting it, even if you don’t require it. There is a good plugin for wordpress called wpopenid. I’ve been talking with Alan, the developer of that plugin, about adding a feature called “unobtrusive mode” which autodetects if the the URL someone entered into the “website” comment field is a valid OpenID and acts accordingly. Until those changes are committed upstream, you can see the changes I’ve made in my project fork.
February 25th, 2007 at 11:03 am
Thanks for input, I think these two will tilt the balance in favor of using OpenID.
Will, I have already downloaded your plugin. I looks to be the most suitable one, will try it soon.
February 25th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I agree with Alex… You should definitely implement OpenID. The technology isn’t mainstream yet, but consider the evolution of “blogs”… that term was coined in 1997, but didn’t become popular until about two years ago when it was pushed by larger sites/portals. Now everyone and their mother has a blog. With the AOL and Digg picking up OpenID so early in the development phase, the evolution cycle (from developer darling to “everyone and their mother has one”) should take little time.
We actually recently implemented OpenID technology on our concert promotion website (Loud Is Relative) and I am thoroughly surprised as the number of OpenID registrations we’re getting on a daily basis. I personally didn’t think too many music fans would be willing to adopt the technology and assumed it would take months for the implementation to reap any rewards… I must say, I am pleasantly surprised!
February 25th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Trying out wpopenid fork by Will Norris. Will try the unobstrusive mode after this.
February 25th, 2007 at 5:28 pm
[...] blog now supports OpenID for comments. I got a favorable response and that was enough for me to use it here. I am using the wpopenid fork created by Will Norris. The [...]
March 2nd, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I am psyched to offer develop OpenID services.
May 9th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
[...] can help in making more service providers aware of its benefits. Check out Simon Willison’s six cool things you can build with OpenID for more [...]
October 29th, 2008 at 9:21 am
[...] ones are usability and its popularity amongst services. The OpenID popularity is growing like a lop-sided campaign. A lot of providers, but not as many services which accept it, which will be more crucial for [...]