Dear OpenID: You Deserve Better
Here’s the thing, OpenID. I think you’re great. You’re smart, sensitive to my needs, and so much better looking than Microsoft Passport ever was. You are a single sign-on service with promise. But you deserve to be treated better.
Some companies look at you and say you aren’t attractive because there aren’t many users that know about you. Then there are users who don’t want anything to do with you because you aren’t supported by their favorite site. The web is so cliquey, isn’t it? It seems nobody can just accept you for you.
I say the users will be there when the big players start treating your right. So, as much as I’d like to mind my own business, as a web technologist, I’m obliged to call out the way you’re being mistreated.
OpenID is only half supported by heavy hitters.
Many cheered when Yahoo, Google and Microsoft became OpenID providers. You know, we did, too. You deserved that attention. Unfortunately, their support is mostly one way.
For example, it was great when Yahoo added 248 million OpenID accounts. Anyone can use their me.yahoo.com URL to access many sites. But Yahoo stopped short — they aren’t letting people use their non-Yahoo IDs to log in to Yahoo. That’s not OpenID support. That’s essentially Passport 2.0.
Yahoo isn’t the only one. Google’s Blogger URLs are OpenIDs, yet Blogger only allows other IDs for posting comments. Why can’t I start a blog with my myvidoop ID? Heck, why can’t I log in to Google Docs from my Yahoo account? Sure, that sounds crazy, but that’s only because these companies have you brainwashed. C’mon! You deserve better.
Sites Aren’t Addressing Users’ Real Pain.
OpenID, it’s wonderful that you will one day save me from remembering a whole bunch of different passwords. I appreciate that convenience, but that’s not my only pain when it comes to online identity.
That’s what you are: an open ID entity, not just a single password. When I sign on to a site with OpenID and the very next screen asks me for my e-mail address, they’re beating on you and me.
Some sites even go so far as to make me create a username and password. After I’ve signed in with OpenID. They just don’t get you the way I do.
The real pain users feel is that registration has become a roadblock between them and what they seek. For varying reasons, sites have decided that in exchange for free content, users owe them something. With OpenID, I don’t mind logging in, but I don’t want to also give them all sorts of information. Sites should let me slowly trust them, instead of wanting everything at once.
You really are special, OpenID. You have a lot going for you, but you’re being mistreated. You can help a lot of people, but not until you’re given the respect you deserve. Because you deserve better, friend.
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