Joomla, OpenID and User Registration

OpenID is the "in-thing" now-a-days. Joomla! has also hopped on to the bandwagon of OpenID and there are now no holds barred. From Joomla! 1.5.5, OpenID 2 is also being supported.

What is OpenID?

OpenID is a free and easy way to use a single digital identity across the Internet. With one OpenID you can login to all your favorite websites and forget about online paperwork!

The idea of one single login for all your web related services has been the dream of online authentication for many years. There have been other attempts at common authentication systems earlier (Microsoft .NET, Passport, Live etc.) but OpenID is claimed to be the mother of all such authentication systems. There are good reasons for it.

Advantages of Open ID are:

• Non-proprietary
• Decentralized
• You can choose/change your OpenID provider
• You can host your OpenID on your own domain too!
• Single login for many many sites
  

How many sites are you registered at? I can't even count how many I have. I generally tend to use the same username password combination in most sites, but it is insecure and not always possible.Wouldn’t it be nice if we could log in to all our online service providers with one single login? Of course! That's why the buzz around OpenID.

So, is it all roses and no thorns?

• It is not user-friendly. At least I think so.Consider this - you want to log in to a site. You type in your OpenID (which will be something like http://yourname.openidprovider.com), you will then be redirected to your OpenID provider, you log in on that site, and you are then redirected back to the website you were trying to log in to in the first place. Not really my idea of being user-friendly.
• Too many services offering OpenID ad they are not cross compatible! Talk of OpenID!! Doesn't that defeat the very purpose and idea behind OpenID?
  
• Providers may discontinue their services leaving their registrants stranded.
• Difficult for non-technical people. Imagine, there are so many providers, and as per their current practice, if they get many OpenIDs, it significantly adds to the confusion. Which OpenID should I use on this site?
• + many more similar complaints...

Does it mean YES or NO for OpenID?

Yes, certainly. It's a great idea, but the implementation is complicated at present. If you login the usual way, it is "login" and done. However, the OpenID way is "login - openID - login again - return to site" which is quite cumbersome. But for those who like the idea of a single login for all sites, this is a small issue.

I am interested. What should I do now?

Get a OpenID.

Get one? You might already HAVE one! Yes, if you have a Blogger, Yahoo, Wordpress.com, Flickr, Technorati or other account, you may use that as your OpenID.

For more information, start here at OpenID.net

What about you? Do you like OpenID? Leave a comment here and we can progress further about its implementation in Joomla!