OpenID

[Sebby]

http://openid.net/

I came across this yesterday and quite like the idea.

The biggest issue is security, but that aside, it would be great not to have different usernames for every site. What do you think?

[Inactive]

Brilliant idea Seb ( security issues aside )..

[Rik]

It makes me a little uncomfortable, tbh, Seb. The idea is nice, but the thought of people hacking in and gaining my ID troubles me too much.

[Sebby]

That is the biggest drawback, Rik. But what's the solution? It's a pain having different usernames and passwords for every site.

Microsoft tried to do something similar with Passport a number of years ago, but it never really took off, probably because not many sites were interested.

[Rik]

It is a pain, and there's no easy solution. I suppose it comes down to whether we prefer to control our own security, or let someone do it for us.

[zappaDPJ]

It is a pain, and there's no easy solution. I suppose it comes down to whether we prefer to control our own security, or let someone do it for us.

I'd certainly not trust anything of that nature from either Microsoft or Google. Both companies recently had their free mail sign up systems compromised resulting in a worldwide epidemic of forum spam.

'OpenID'? Sorry but I don't want my ID opened up to anything. The very name of it makes me shudder!

[Sebby]

I don't think that's the intended meaning of "open" in this instance, but point taken.

[Simon]

I have several different usernames and passwords for different sites, but I just let SeaMonkey remember them all for me. 

[Sebby]

That's fair enough.