myguideTravel Blog

OpenID opens up

January 17th, 2008

Yahoo made a significant announcement today. They are going to support the OpenID 2.0 standard for universal Internet log-in for all their 250 million customers. For small niche companies like myguideIreland, myguideBritain et al. this is really huge. It’s a big ask for a small company like ours, to get our Guests to remember usernames and passwords.

What is OpenID?

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.

You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to. And best of all, the OpenID technology is not proprietary and is completely free.

For businesses, this means a lower cost of password and account management, while drawing new web traffic. OpenID lowers user frustration by letting users have control of their login.

For geeks, OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity. OpenID takes advantage of already existing internet technology (URI, HTTP, SSL, Diffie-Hellman) and realizes that people are already creating identities for themselves whether it be at their blog, photostream, profile page, etc. With OpenID you can easily transform one of these existing URIs into an account which can be used at sites which support OpenID logins.

At myguideTravel, we recently took a decision to support OpenID later in 2008. Yahoo’s announcement today, makes that seem like a smart decision now. Password hell might soon be a thing of the past.

Entry Filed under: Travel