Skip to navigation

PCPro-Computing in the Real World Printed from www.pcpro.co.uk

Register to receive our regular email newsletter at http://www.pcpro.co.uk/registration.

The newsletter contains links to our latest PC news, product reviews, features and how-to guides, plus special offers and competitions.

Latest News

Facebook surprises with OpenID membership

Posted on 6 Feb 2009 at 14:59

Facebook has joined the OpenID Foundation, the company has announced.

The move will come as a shock to many, given that Facebook's own Friend Connect has been going head-to-head with OpenID to become the internet's unified log-in standard.

Facebook claims Friend Connect has been adopted by 4,000 websites since launch. However, the proprietary technology underpinning the service has angered rivals, especially given the open-source nature of OpenID.

Facebook has not confirmed, or even suggested, any plans to make the two standards compatible, but it has agreed to host a summit and meet with OpenID's big hitters, including Google, IBM, Microsoft, PayPal and Yahoo.

This could be an attempt to head off further criticism, and the company is certainly making all the right conciliatory noises.

"It is our hope that we can take the success of Facebook Connect and work together with the community to build easy-to-use, safe, open and secure distributed identity frameworks for use across the web," says Facebook's Mike Schroepfer, a former Mozilla man.

It is a sentiment echoed by OpenID advocates: "Given the popularity and positive user experience of Facebook Connect, we look forward to Facebook working within the community to improve OpenID's usability and reach," says the Foundation's David Recordon and Chris Messina.

Author: Stuart Turton

Be the first to comment this article

You need to Login or Register to comment.

(optional)

advertisement

Most Commented News Stories
Latest Blog Posts Subscribe to our RSS Feeds
Latest Reviews Subscribe to our RSS Feeds
Latest Real World Computing

advertisement

Sponsored Links
 
SEARCH
SIGN UP

Your email:

Your password:

remember me

advertisement


Hitwise Top 10 Website 2008