3 ms·

Forgive me for naivete, but isn't that the point of OpenID? Using one account to log in everywhere? Or am I mistaken about something? Further, OpenID is about

by unalone 18y ago

Forgive me for naivete, but isn't that the point of OpenID? Using one account to log in everywhere? Or am I mistaken about something? Further, OpenID is about positively identifying somebody online. Since Facebook has one of the stricter naming policies online, isn't that a good thing that they want to make Facebook IDs more openly available?

jrockway 18y ago
Yes, but the point is that right now, everyone provides an OpenID, but they don't let you log in with OpenID. So OpenID is essentially worthless, since you can't actually use it anywhere. It will become very worthwhile when major sites start letting me use it to log in. (I always compare OpenID to email. Going with that analogy, right now, every site gives you an email address that anyone can send to. But each site will only send e-mail to its own addresses, completely eliminating any value.)
- unalone 18y ago
  Aha, gotcha. It's good for smaller sites, though. If I want to bootstrap my users and I'm going for a Facebook-like crowd, having instant access via Facebook ID might be nice to have.
  - jrockway 18y ago
    Yes, definitely. For any public site I develop, I use OpenID logins exclusively. (Most of the "real" work I do involves non-public applications, and OpenID just doesn't fit there. But for sites that I want my IRC buddies to use, OpenID is the best solution -- easy to implement, and it means the users can spend their time playing with the site, not waiting for the e-mail confirmation message.)
- jwilliams 18y ago
  Yeah - although I'm starting to find that sites using OpenID 2.0 to have a good user experience. e.g. http://www.plaxo.com http://www.plaxo.com I'm not really a heavy user of it, I probably wouldn't have joined - but they make it ridiculously easy to register. We're taking on OpenID 2.0 as part our our development as a consequence. I know it has it's drawbacks, but as you say, getting the penetration up front is key. Either way - hopefully a sign of things to come.
  - unalone 18y ago
    I dislike Plaxo. Just as OpenOffice is what I look at as an example of the worst of Open Source, Plaxo is my posterchild example of OpenID. It adds nothing. First it was an address book in the midst of a sea of similar address books. It added OpenID to gain an "edge" and it got publicity despite its still having a meaningless featurelist. Plaxo 3 added Pulse, which is just a watered-down FriendFeed, which is a pretty watered-down site to begin with. It's ugly - it was obviously design-by-committee, which made it incredibly harmless and hideously generic - it adds nothing, and it has uglier ads than most of the sites it's ripping off. The name is terrible. It's the ultimate example of the meaningless short name.

by unalone 18y ago

jrockway 18y ago

Yes, but the point is that right now, everyone provides an OpenID, but they don't let you log in with OpenID. So OpenID is essentially worthless, since you can't actually use it anywhere. It will become very worthwhile when major sites start letting me use it to log in. (I always compare OpenID to email. Going with that analogy, right now, every site gives you an email address that anyone can send to. But each site will only send e-mail to its own addresses, completely eliminating any value.)

unalone 18y ago
Aha, gotcha. It's good for smaller sites, though. If I want to bootstrap my users and I'm going for a Facebook-like crowd, having instant access via Facebook ID might be nice to have.
- jrockway 18y ago
  Yes, definitely. For any public site I develop, I use OpenID logins exclusively. (Most of the "real" work I do involves non-public applications, and OpenID just doesn't fit there. But for sites that I want my IRC buddies to use, OpenID is the best solution -- easy to implement, and it means the users can spend their time playing with the site, not waiting for the e-mail confirmation message.)
jwilliams 18y ago
Yeah - although I'm starting to find that sites using OpenID 2.0 to have a good user experience. e.g. http://www.plaxo.com http://www.plaxo.com I'm not really a heavy user of it, I probably wouldn't have joined - but they make it ridiculously easy to register. We're taking on OpenID 2.0 as part our our development as a consequence. I know it has it's drawbacks, but as you say, getting the penetration up front is key. Either way - hopefully a sign of things to come.
- unalone 18y ago
  I dislike Plaxo. Just as OpenOffice is what I look at as an example of the worst of Open Source, Plaxo is my posterchild example of OpenID. It adds nothing. First it was an address book in the midst of a sea of similar address books. It added OpenID to gain an "edge" and it got publicity despite its still having a meaningless featurelist. Plaxo 3 added Pulse, which is just a watered-down FriendFeed, which is a pretty watered-down site to begin with. It's ugly - it was obviously design-by-committee, which made it incredibly harmless and hideously generic - it adds nothing, and it has uglier ads than most of the sites it's ripping off. The name is terrible. It's the ultimate example of the meaningless short name.