Understanding OpenID

When developers create new software applications, they must write code that allows the user to log into the system, which means password management. To prevent hackers from comprising the user credentials, software developers must make considerable effort to make sure the usernames and passwords are secure. As an alternative to implementing their own username and passwords, the developers instead can leverage OpenID. OpenID allows users to use an existing account to log into multiple websites. Today, more than 1 billion OpenID accounts exist and are accepted by thousands of websites. Companies that support OpenID include Google, Yahoo, WordPress.com, and more. When a user accesses one of these sites, the user can specify his or her OpenID credentials. Behind the scenes, the sites will authenticate the user with OpenID.

Using OpenID provides companies with the following advantages:

• Increased site conversion rates (the rate at which customers choose to join the site) because users do not need to register

• Access to greater user-profile content

• Reduced password recovery issues

• Ease of content integration into social-networking sites

• Reduced software development for username and password management

For more information on OpenID or, to get your own OpenID username and password, visit the OpenID website at www.OpenID.org, as shown in FIGURE 5-5.