OpenID’s Struggle for Acceptance

OpenID is one of those concepts that, in theory, sounds good but in practice has failed to gain much traction.

Sure, OpenID has gained some high-profile supporters such as Google, IBM and Yahoo but there doesn’t seem to be much, if any, enthusiasm among consumers. In other words, there’s few people clamoring for a single sign-on system to replace the username/password regime that currently exists. A couple of days ago, the New York Times had an opinion piece that dismissed OpenID as little better than username/passwords.

“OpenID offers, at best, a little convenience, and ignores the security vulnerability inherent in the process of typing a password into someone else’s Web site,” wrote Randall Stross, an author and professor at San Jose State University.
Nevertheless, OpenID is one of those ideas that refuses to go away. For example, I received an e-mail from MyOpenID breathlessly talking about how the number of OpenID enabled Web sites has climbed to 18,000 from 500 over the past two years. Let’s be honest, 18,000 is a pretty small number in the scheme of things.

“Notable sites are realizing the benefits of accepting OpenID,” the e-mail pronounced. “Sourceforge, the world’s largest open source development site, recently started accepting OpenIDs. As stated in their announcement, “OpenID is getting tremendous traction and we are happy to be jumping into it. It’s bringing us back in touch with fresh web (2.0) technology”.

This kind of marketing crap is part and parcel of the OpenID’s futile campaign to gain acceptance. Everyone talks about the benefits and advantages yet few people seem to be using it.

Sounds a lot like Bluetooth or the Betamax.

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