All Annotations of Why AOL Created 63 Million New OpenIDs[Preview]

saved by2 people, first byMarcel Weiss on 2007-02-20, last byMoultrie Creek on 2008-02-01

• Late last week AOL announced its
  support of the open identity system OpenID, for all 63
  million of their AOL/AIM Ids (for those looking for a quick introduction to OpenID, click
  here). The details of the announcement, via the dev.aol.com blog, are as
  follows:
• • Every AOL/AIM user now has at least one OpenID URI,
    http://openid.aol.com/screenname.
  
  
  
  • This experimental OpenID 1.1 Provider service is available now and AOL is conducting
    compatibility tests.
  
  
  
  • AOL's blogging platform has enabled basic OpenID 1.1 in beta, so every beta blog URI
    is also a basic OpenID identifier. (No Yadis yet.)
  
  
  
  • AOL doesn't yet accept OpenID identities within their products as a relying party,
    but they're actively working on it. That roll-out is likely to be gradual.
  
  
  
  • AOL is tracking the OpenID 2.0 standardization effort and plan to support it after it
    becomes final.
• How does it affect AOL/AIM users? With the OpenID integration, an AOL user will be
  able to login to a service provider that accepts OpenID, using their AOL/AIM
  username/password, without needing to create a new service-specific username/password.
  This is a great way for AOL to try and retain its once formidable (and still significant)
  user base, by providing an OpenID-based solution to the knotty problem of web single
  sign-on. So AOL user names will potentially be an entry into hundreds of different web
  sites and services, thanks to OpenID.
• Still, AOL opening up OpenID to its 63 million users is a great validation for OpenID.
  On the heels of the
  Microsoft announcement, the AOL announcement builds further momentum for the OpenID
  solution, as the answer to the long sought after goal of Web single sign-on.