Yahoo backs OpenID

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 18 Jan 2008 at 11:44

Yahoo has announced that from the end of January anyone with a Yahoo ID, including Flickr users, will be able to use the same ID to access sites supporting OpenID 2.0.

OpenID is a digital management standard which allows web users to register a single username and password that can then be used with any website that supports the system. Yahoo's support will triple the number of OpenIDs to 368 million.

"A Yahoo ID is one of the most recognisable and useful accounts to have on the internet and with our support of OpenID, it will become even more powerful," says Ash Patel, executive vice president of platforms and infrastructure at Yahoo.

"Supporting OpenID gives our users the freedom to leverage their Yahoo ID both on and off the Yahoo network, reducing the number of usernames and passwords they need to remember and offering a single, trusted partner for managing their online identity."

The 2.0 specification was completed at the end of 2007 with the intention of making OpenID easier to use and more secure. No email or IM addresses are disclosed during the login process, for example, addressing concerns that OpenID users could be exposed to phishing attacks.

In a separate announcement Google has announced that Blogger is to be an OpenID provider, meaning that Blogger users will soon be able to use any of their blogs as an OpenID identity, by checking "Enable OpenID for blogs" in their Blogger profile.