The Killer App for OpenID

One of the biggest challenges facing OpenID is it’s a solution (universal identity management) looking for a problem to solve.

Sure, it’s a pain having to remember different usernames and passwords (unless you lazily use the same ones for everything) but most people don’t see it as a huge issue, which means OpenID has failed to gain much traction. And to be frank, that won’t change much even with major players such as Google, Yahoo and AOL starting to climb on the OpenID bandwagon recently.

All, however, is not lost because there is a “killer app” that could propel OpenID from a curiosity into a mainstream tool.

The genesis for this optimistic outlook is PageOnce, which I discovered yesterday on TechCrunch. PageOnce is a personal application portal where you can access all your online accounts (e.g. GMail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Visa, MySpace, Citibank, Netflix, etc.). This is a concept that, in theory, sounds great because it would eliminate the need to visit multiple sites at a time when we’re using an increasing number of online services.

The biggest hurdle is you have to provide PageOnce (or any other personal app portal) with all your username and password information. This makes me uncomfortable because it means you have to have complete faith in PageOnce’s security – something I think that many people would be loathe to do, especially with financial information.

This is where OpenID comes into play. Rather than giving PageOnce all your username/password information, you could use OpenID as a way to submit your information efficiently and securely. Of course, this is based on the assumption OpenID can evolve to address security issues such as attacks from phishers, as well as concerns about privacy.

Sure, there are a lot of “ifs” surrounding the emergence of personal portals and OpenID but if both ideas are going to gain any kind of traction with consumers, it would be a good idea if the players in both camps started working together to present a united solution.

More: Here’s a good video about digital identification from Sxip’s Dick Hardt, while MediaShift’s Mark Glaser has a lengthy post on how to protect your online privacy.

Technorati Tags: OpenID, Web 2.0