Recently I talked about OpenID, what it is and how it works. In case you missed that post, here’s a definition of OpenID according to Wikipedia:
OpenID (OID) is an open standard and decentralized protocol by the non-profit OpenID Foundation that allows users to be authenticated by certain co-operating sites (known as Relying Parties or RP) using a third party service. This eliminates the need for webmasters to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities.
A few hours ago, it was announced on the WordPress.com blog that WordPress.com users can now use their WordPress.com URLs as an OpenID. That’s good news for me and for others who wanna try it, because I’ve been wanting to try out OpenID and I don’t have to create one since I already have a WordPress.com account.
Now that I have my OpenID, where can I use it? Good question. Aside from the Web 2.0 startups who are using and implementing the OpenID system, the more popular sites that use it are Technorati, LiveJournal and Movable Type weblogs to mention a few. I think it won’t be long until WordPress weblogs would also implement this system.
Learn more about this from the WordPress.com FAQs. Or if you want to know what other sites use OpenID, check out the Official Site Directory.
Anyone here planning to use their WordPress.com URL as their OpenID? Please share your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
@K – The goal of OpenID is to make web identity centralized so users won't have to created different usernames and passwords for different sites. Yeah, I have do have a WordPress.com account but I haven't updated it in ages. I use it when this blog is down or offline. :D
@jhay – Yup. This OpenID thing is catching like wild fire especially after AOL and Digg announced that they would implement this system. :)
Not bad at all. I have an OpenID and I use it for my zooomr account. Now that it's merged with your WordPress.com url, everything would be a bit smoother.
I've read it and I have no clue what this thing do – innovation? simply cool? But at least, you don't need to worry about creating many passwords when you sign-up to any of these (mentioned above) popular sites.
So you have a wp.com account?