OpenID for dummies (updated)

I know this isn’t very usability related, but I just had to blog this. I’ve been hearing a lot about OpenID, but I personally didn’t pay much attention to it. Yesterday I got into it.

OpenID is a solution to the single sign-on problem. What amazes me the most about it is the paradigm shift from loging with a user and password, to loging with a URL.

Click here to watch the video

It’s kinda simple. You need to know there are 3 entities envolved: You, your OpenID Provider and a website that supports OpenID. Here are the steps:

1. You register in a OpenID provider. Here you specify a username and a password, an email and everything else… you know, your data. For that they give you a URL, which is your ID. Mine is diegoferreyra.myopenid.com.
2. Then you go into a website that supports OpenID. I tried it with Jyte. They ask you for your OpenID (the URL). Once you’ve entered it they go to your provider and ask for your information.
   [2.1. If you haven’t logged in to your OpenID provider they will ask you for your password too.]
3. Your provider will ask if you would like to let them use the information once, or forever. Once you answer that, you are all set.

You registered once at your provider but you can use the ID in many places. Neat. And since your ID is a URL, doesn’t matter where you registered, you can use it everywhere, it’s not like you need Microsoft ID (Passport), Yahoo ID, AOL, and so on depending on where you want to log in. You don’t have to remember 3000 passwords anymore!

I tried to put this as simple as possible, wanted to do a sketch, which I might do later edit: Just did a flash movie of this. I really couldn’t find a OpenID for dummies site, read about it in wikipedia. I signed in with MyOpenID.com and I didn’t really see a good explanation about it. I hope a provider with a better design comes out soon, something like what Skype used to have when VoIP was kinda new.

Update: Now Michael Arrington is reporting that Digg is going to start using OpenID as well.

Update 2: I have some ideas on how to use OpenID for the good of mankind here.

Edit: Digg this! – Still looking for a way to put a real button.