OpenID comes to Facebook, at last

For the past few years, Facebook has been flirting with the possibility of supporting the OpenID log-in standard, which calls itself "an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity" without actually building support for it.

Now, the massive social network--once famous for its ultra-walled-garden approach to data and user experience--announced Monday that it has become an OpenID "relying party," which basically means that it's started, at last, to deploy support for the standard. Facebook joined the OpenID Foundation in February, even though many considered its Facebook Connect log-in standard to be a proprietary competitor.

But, Monday's announcement indicated, Facebook believes the two can work in tandem.

"We've always let our users express their real world connections," a post on the Facebook blog read. "From the beginning, Facebook users could use their college and workplace identities to establish real world networks. Now, they can use open standards to establish their identities on Facebook."

Most notably, you can now register for a Facebook account with your Gmail account, or can link an existing Facebook account with Gmail or other OpenID-participating services if they support automatic log-in.

"We've always believed that making the user experience as secure, lightweight, and intuitive as possible, which 200 million people can comfortably enjoy and understand, is one of our top priorities," the blog post read. That could be a subtle nod to the fact that OpenID, founded in 2005, has historically been a bit difficult for the non-tech-savvy to comprehend.

Facebook's blog post also said that security concerns have been an issue. In working with the OpenID community, "we shared our experience developing Facebook Connect, where we eventually came up with a design that ensures that users would know that they were providing their login credentials to Facebook, and not some unscrupulous site."

The plus side? Facebook's tests have indicated that if new users can register with an existing Web service account, like Gmail, that they are more likely to stick around.

[Sir_Sid]

How do you link your gmail account to facebook?

[wormdood]

It doesn't seem to work with my ClaimID openID account.

[liquidmetalband]

I don't see how OpenID can possibly call itself "decentralised" when it holds your account details for multiple websites. It is very centralised.

With that said, it probably does provide better security than your average website, at least against other members of the general public.

[Hunnter2k3]

I think you should probably read this page, slowly.
http://openid.net/what/

They don't hold anything.

[Michichael]

Yay for slow news days and corporate sponsorship! anyone else notice that the comment section is completely handled through face book and that you have to allow scripts from that cesspool in order to comment?

[ccwsoftware]

Say, what? I see nothing of the sort here. Not even close. I just blocked Facebook in NoScript, reloaded the page, clicked 'Reply to this comment,' and here I am.

[Hunnter2k3]

@ccwsoftware

Heh, i also tried this (using Chrome as main though)
I was wondering what he was going on about, but i think he was meaning the Facebook blog, which baffles me even more as to why he is complaining...

[darfjono]

not news

[mikeburek]

Not a real comment.

[mikeburek]

I'm a little worried about the tracking that Facebook does across different sites.

[Sir_Sid]

If you are worried than dont use it. Nobody makes you. I just find it convenient to be able to log into sites like cnet with my facebook account