

OpenID - Separating fact from hype: Have you implemented OpenID? What's the uptake? - nickb

I have a question for those that have implemented OpenID on their webapps. I had a coffee with a good friend of mine that has his own startup. They're working on a consumer app that's become fairly popular and they're growing nicely. Topic of OpenID came up and i asked him how long it took them to add support for it and how many people have signed up using an OpenID. He mentioned that it took them a couple of days to add it in and test it out and fix all the issues.<p>And you know how many people signed up using OpenID? 10. Not percent, just ten people signed up using OpenID in the past 40 days. These guys have about 900+ new subscribers per day.<p>Anyway, if you have a limited amount of time and money to spend on an app, spend your energy somewhere else until OpenID becomes (if ever) more adopted.
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uuilly
I know nothing about OpenID. So I went to their website:

This is their tagline: "OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for
user-centric digital identity."

blah blah ...user centric... blah

How about: OpenID allows you to have one login for multiple sites.

This is the paragraph after the tagline: "OpenID starts with the concept that
anyone can identify themselves on the Internet the same way websites do-with a
URI (also called a URL or web address). Since URIs are at the very core of Web
architecture, they provide a solid foundation for user-centric identity."

I don't even know where to begin here.

This is all a long way of saying that I think the upside of supporting OpenID
is very small. It may be a brilliant idea, brilliantly excecuted but few will
use it b/c it is so poorly explained. Making users feel stupid is a bad way of
getting them to use your stuff. Open or not.

~~~
pg
Perhaps a startup will come along and make OpenID easy...

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uuilly
It's a shame if a seemingly good project would have to be re-created only to
be topped off w/ basic customer awareness. I think a lot of open source
projects suffer from this mentality. Take the "open, community, GPL, Torvalds"
stuff off of your landing page. Your users aren't joining a cult, they're
using your product. Like Levchin said, there should be a "Get Mine Now!!!"
button. Firefox and Ubuntu are doing well because they are catering to the
"Get Mine Now" crowd (which is everyone who isn't a developer.)

But on the other hand, maybe there is a great startup that could take the
OpenID concept to the next level. I don't know b/c I don't really understand
what they do! :)

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petenixey
Right now, I think it's still way too difficult for most consumers to get a
handle on.

That said, ma.gnolia.com sees 12% of its 4800 monthly signups as OpenID
signups and those that do sign up using OpenID are 11% more likely to become
active users (11% less likely to be locked out?)

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ivankirigin
But how many people wouldn't have signed up if the option isn't supported?
That's important to figure out how worthwhile it is.

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staunch
I haven't done anything big with it yet, but it was fairly trivial for me to
implement OpenID support. It has the classic chicken and egg problem.
Eventually it will be very useful, if we all get behind it. There's certainly
no better option for distributed identity.

Some may find it interesting to know that OpenID was originally a weekend hack
created by Brad Fitzpatrick. Now it's a big deal and even Microsoft has
announced strategy around it. Definitely one of the most potent "hacks to
amuse your friends" that I've ever seen.

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inklesspen
How easy is it to spot that openid is supported? If you have to click 'login',
and then spot a tiny text link that says 'login with openid', of course not
many people are going to sign up with openid.

But if you put it right next to the register link instead, EVERYWHERE that
there's a register link, and at the same size, and have the openid page
explain that the user may already have an openid (from a Livejournal or AIM
account, et cetera), I bet you'd see more users.

