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Google Adopts, Forks OpenID 1.0
An anonymous reader writes "Right on the heels of Microsoft's adoption of the OpenID protocol by announcing their intention to enable OpenID authentication against all Live IDs, Google has announced their intention to join the growing list of OpenID authentication providers. Except it turns out they're using their own version of OpenID that is incompatible with everyone else. It seems that Google will be using their own 'improved' version of OpenID (based upon research and user feedback of the OpenID system) which isn't backwards compatible with OpenID 1.0/2.0, in hopes of improving end-user experience at the cost of protocol compatibility and complexity."
Substitute Microsoft's name for Google and it'd be just another day in tech. Interesting to see Google doing this though.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Google will be cheered or booed depending on what they do with their changes to OpenID. They could very well turn around and propose it for version two or whatnot of OpenID. After all, if it isn't compatible then what the hell is the point.
Microsoft is hated because they DEFINED "embrace and extend." They regularly use it as a weapon against their competitors. We have yet to see Google use their version of OpenID, much less use it against anyone.
Never mind that OpenID screams "single point of failure" to me.
There you go again. What the hell are you talking about? Now to log into some stupid site, I have to get a blog too? Huh?
Admit it, the URL thing sucks ass. Email addresses are something we all have, and many websites are using email addresses as your login already. If OpenID did email, even *if* there wasn't any DNS trickery like I suggest, life would have been 100% easier. But no, I'm sure there is some "valid" reason the purity trolls who wrote the spec had against something so simple and logical, so they decided URL's would be best, usability be damned.
"Rubbish. For people like your dad, OpenID is both simple *and* simpler than having to sign up for dozens of sites just to post a comment."
That's true if you count the step. The thing you overlooked is, he doesn't know what OpenID is! Try to explain OpenID to a random person on street. How big is the chance that he understands it and will even care? Have you ever went through an OpenID registration process? There's no way my dad understands that. The barrier to entry for average users is too high.
There's more to usability than simply counting the number of steps.
"Suppose we live in a world where everybody implements OpenID (as a consumer and provider)."
It's useless to speak of such a world. It simply doesn't exist. The hard reality is that OpenID adoption is still low.
"If I "can't possibly expect [your dad] to do something as complex" as that, I weep for your dad - and you, given that you got 50% of your genes from him."
Oh yeah, like launching a personal attack on me will make the usability problems magically go away. If anything, this is a sign of your weakness.
I agree with you wholeheartedly that Google's solution is better, Bruce, but...it's not the standard. The proper way to do this, and one I'd have been fine with, would be to support OpenID, plus this alternative that's much easier for the average user to understand. That's not what Google did, and I don't think we're out-of-line for faulting them for it.
Basically all open standards do, or eventually do, which is why many commercial entities decide to roll up their own. Yup, while definately many of the times when Microsoft did something like this WAS out of "evil", a large portion was for the same darn reason as this. There's VERY few open standards that aren't an insane mess of "I'll add your idea if you add mine" crap.
Do you already have a Google Account nickname set up and ready to enter into the login field? Did you even know such a thing existed? Does Joe The Plumber (TM) know that?
I do, but then again, I use OpenID the way God intended: I have my blog delegate to a 3rd party that specializes in it (myopenid.com).
My blog URL is exactly what I want to show the world my identity. It's the hub of a significant portion of my public online content.
Why does a blog that I'm commenting on need to know my e-mail address? They might spam me.
An e-mail address is private information. A URL is just as unique, with the added benefit of being public.
...because "hacker" sounds way sexier than "code drone."