TechCrunch wrote an article asking if the Big Boys were exploiting OpenID. The crux of the argument was that they are providing OpenIDs, but are not accepting them. In other words, they are an OpenID Provider, but not a Relying Party. John McCrea echos what Michael said, and Jason Kolb and David Recordon also wrote posts — and I agree that it is great that the Big Boys have joined in — but I think it is unfair of Michael and John to expect them to be Relying Parties.
Googles Blogger does take OpenIDs for comments, which as I have stated in the past, is a good use of OpendID. But OpenID still has a ways to go before you can trust it for secure sign on. I would not want to use it for accessing my Yahoo or gmail accounts.
Having said that, there are two things to hold the Big Boys feet to the fire:
- Support Attribute Exchange: Single sign on is nice, but browsers will remember your password for you. (Sxipper does it really well of course!) Filling in forms and keeping your information up to date on servers would be really useful. This goes against the grain of the Big Boys as it makes it easier for users to register on sites other then their own — but it is a real benefit to the user and lowers the registration friction — and it would show that they really want to help the user as opposed to just deepening the silo.
- Advance the OpenID Technology: There are valid reasons for not being an RP for sensitive sites, but we need to advance the technology to overcome them. The Big Boys can direct some of their bright talent to working with the community in general to overcome these issues.
