Open ID — Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Ever get tired of having so many different logins, and identities on the various forums, blogs, communities and social marketing sites you frequent? Most people do. How about when you forget your password, and spend minutes guessing, only to do the request to email for new password — return to site — enter with new password — reset it, thing? Wouldn’t an elegant solution to that hassle be great?
Reputation equals credibility online, and trust builds exactly the type of relationships you need in Social Marketing — the underlying benefits of using Open ID.
To the rescue comes a Portland, Oregon firm, JanRain, with a Universal Login Widget. And, it’s free — released Open Source.
Above, you can get an ID Selector for your website at www.idselector.com, by JanRain Inc.
“The ID Selector is what website operators and OpenID users have been demanding,” said Brian Kissel, JanRain’s CEO. “They’ve been asking platform developers to devise a better way to harness the potential of OpenID by creating a simpler, more intuitive user-experience. For websites already enabled, ID Selector can be installed before the “next forgotten password customer call has been resolved.” JanRain was a key contributor in establishing the OpenID Foundation to foster the growth of, and corporate participation in, the OpenID movement.
Already, AOL, Yahoo, and Google are on board, and most of the major blogging platforms including Blogger, TypePad, LiveJournal, WordPress, and Bloglines. Add some major social bookmarking services like Technorati, and the ubiquitous Flickr, and you get some idea of the powerful mix that’s brewing. There’s recent news that the BBC just signed on, so the protocol looks to be going global.
To get your personal Open ID — jump over to OpenID.net
Want to get your own Open ID? You may already have one. If you use any of the popular sites just listed, one of those ID’s will work. If you don’t have one yet — hop on over to OpenID.net http://openid.net/.
How to deploy the new ID Technology on WordPress Sites
Above, at top the ability to be known in comments by your OpenID is enabled using the WP-OpenID plugin on WordPress sites. At bottom, Open ID identities are managed in the Admin. area.
If you blog on the free hosting version of WordPress (at WordPress.com), it’s already been implemented (see: article). If you’re a BlogMaster with your own hosted version of WordPress (from WordPress.org), there’s a plugin to help you out, called WP-Open ID. The plugin “allows verified OpenIDs to be linked to existing user accounts for use as an alternative means of authentication. Additionally, commenters may use their OpenID to assure their identity as the author of the comment and provide a framework for future OpenID-based services (reputation and trust, for example).” Try it out below, when you leave a comment here.
Consider that last quote carefully. Reputation equals credibility online, and trust builds exactly the type of relationships you need in Social Marketing — the underlying benefits of using Open ID. And, even though many BlogMasters don’t encourage users to “register” on WordPress blogs, just the ability to establish known users in comments will be valuable.
We plan to start installing the WP-Open ID plugin as standard for all our clients at WebFadds.com. Have you used it? What do you think of it? Leave your comments here — and use your Open ID.
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May 9th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Hey thats exactly what i was looking for keep up the good work