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This is bad advice for anyone that's not a SaaS company selling to people on non-mobile browsers, like MailChimp is. Our analytics show that many people on mob

This is bad advice for anyone that's not a SaaS company selling to people on non-mobile browsers, like MailChimp is. Our analytics show that many people on mobile and consumer websites do indeed want to use OAuth. (I've been meaning to do a blog post on this topic...)

Alupis 12y ago
Can you elaborate a little? Using OAuth is fine and all... but it's not eliminating the customer from having to sign-in still... ie. they are still typing a username and password, just not into your system. So what are the benefits (both perceived and actual)?
- nostromo 12y ago
  We have seen a number of customers who improved their overall signup rates by adding OAuth as an option. The effect is even more pronounced on mobile and consumer web. Most people do not log out of Facebook and Google on their devices, so they do not have to sign-in. They just click "Facebook" then "Approve." That's much easier than filling out your email and password -- particularly on a mobile device.
- RaphiePS 12y ago
  If they're already logged into Facebook/Twitter, they don't have to type a single thing -- they just hit the "Accept" button and they're done.
fblp 12y ago
It's also true for SaaS. Many of our signups are from Facebook or Linkedin social login. It's one button for the user vs multiple fields.
- olegp 12y ago
  I can second that. Having interviewed a number of SaaS vendors as part of the customer development work we've been doing at StartHQ (https://starthq.com https://starthq.com) it became apparent that some vendors are seeing as many as 60% of their sign ups using Google OAuth.
cessor 12y ago
Thank you for this comment. I came here just to ask what others experienced. I love these buttons (all hail confirmation bias). It would be great to hear from other peoples experiences whether their users use oauth or not.
gingerlime 12y ago
From my experience with a B2C site, we see around 50% use password and 50% use social logins. The problem however is that people easily forget what they used to login with, and when they try things like a password reset, we can't really reset their passwords if they used social logins. Or they might forget whether they used google or facebook to login... So the main problem that I personally have with social logins is that they create fragmentation, and a simple login form becomes a memory-exercise for the user.
- nostromo 12y ago
  This is actually a pain point our company (https://www.dailycred.com https://www.dailycred.com) solves. If a user forgets the method they used to sign up, we'll still return the right user record to your app. Be careful implementing this, because it can be a security issue if you're not cautious.
- smsm42 12y ago
  That's why I avoid using social login buttons. I have a password manager, so remembering passwords is not a problem. However, remembering if I logged to this site with Facebook, Twitter, Google or something else is.
- rokhayakebe 12y ago
  Frankly I would like to have only one login with Gmail which requires triple authentication (password + image or something else + phone or dongle or heartbeat or something), then for everything else just email me a link to log in.
- finkin1 12y ago
  If users sign up through a social site, their account is still identified by email. So as long as their email addresses are the same between sites, it doesn't matter which social service they use, so they won't have to remember. Twitter doesn't provide an email address, however, so that could be a problem.
  - rjvir 12y ago

Alupis 12y ago

Can you elaborate a little? Using OAuth is fine and all... but it's not eliminating the customer from having to sign-in still... ie. they are still typing a username and password, just not into your system. So what are the benefits (both perceived and actual)?

nostromo 12y ago
We have seen a number of customers who improved their overall signup rates by adding OAuth as an option. The effect is even more pronounced on mobile and consumer web. Most people do not log out of Facebook and Google on their devices, so they do not have to sign-in. They just click "Facebook" then "Approve." That's much easier than filling out your email and password -- particularly on a mobile device.
RaphiePS 12y ago
If they're already logged into Facebook/Twitter, they don't have to type a single thing -- they just hit the "Accept" button and they're done.

fblp 12y ago

It's also true for SaaS. Many of our signups are from Facebook or Linkedin social login. It's one button for the user vs multiple fields.

olegp 12y ago
I can second that. Having interviewed a number of SaaS vendors as part of the customer development work we've been doing at StartHQ (https://starthq.com https://starthq.com) it became apparent that some vendors are seeing as many as 60% of their sign ups using Google OAuth.

cessor 12y ago

Thank you for this comment. I came here just to ask what others experienced. I love these buttons (all hail confirmation bias). It would be great to hear from other peoples experiences whether their users use oauth or not.

gingerlime 12y ago

From my experience with a B2C site, we see around 50% use password and 50% use social logins. The problem however is that people easily forget what they used to login with, and when they try things like a password reset, we can't really reset their passwords if they used social logins. Or they might forget whether they used google or facebook to login... So the main problem that I personally have with social logins is that they create fragmentation, and a simple login form becomes a memory-exercise for the user.

nostromo 12y ago
This is actually a pain point our company (https://www.dailycred.com https://www.dailycred.com) solves. If a user forgets the method they used to sign up, we'll still return the right user record to your app. Be careful implementing this, because it can be a security issue if you're not cautious.
smsm42 12y ago
That's why I avoid using social login buttons. I have a password manager, so remembering passwords is not a problem. However, remembering if I logged to this site with Facebook, Twitter, Google or something else is.
rokhayakebe 12y ago
Frankly I would like to have only one login with Gmail which requires triple authentication (password + image or something else + phone or dongle or heartbeat or something), then for everything else just email me a link to log in.
finkin1 12y ago
If users sign up through a social site, their account is still identified by email. So as long as their email addresses are the same between sites, it doesn't matter which social service they use, so they won't have to remember. Twitter doesn't provide an email address, however, so that could be a problem.
- rjvir 12y ago