ReadWriteWeb

OpenID Status Check: A Guide to Getting and Using Your OpenID

Written by Sarah Perez / April 3, 2008 11:33 AM / 29 Comments
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You've heard a lot about OpenID, the decentralized framework for authenticating users across the web. OpenID is convenient for end users, allowing them to login to numerous web sites using one set of credentials - their OpenID. But how is OpenID doing today? Where can you get one? And more importantly, where can you use it? We took the pulse of OpenID to see how it's currently faring.

Where To Get Your OpenID

Mainstream Sites:

Many people still don't realize that they don't even have to go get an OpenID - they already have one. Several mainstream web sites function as OpenID providers. If you have an account at one of the following, then congratulations - you already have an OpenID!

Well-Known Providers:

You can also pick up an OpenID from these providers.

  • ClaimID - free OpenID providers
  • Clickpass - OpenID provider that makes OpenID easier for developers to install and users to understand 
  • myID.net - free OpenID provider with support for groups and Korean language
  • myOpenID - free OpenID provider
  • myVidoop - free OpenID Provider that eliminates passwords with security features, customization, and browser integration.
  • VeriSign's Personal Identity Provider - free OpenID provder with support for multi-factor authentication

Other Providers:

  • AlwaysKnownAs.com - OpenID provider, plus user-centric contact management system with address book plug-ins wrapped around OpenID
  • Beemba- Supports Information Cards as well as traditional forms-based authentication
  • certifi.ca - Browser-certificate-based OpenID service; free; no passwords, no phishing
  • gpgid.box43.net - OpenID provider using PGP/GPG public key authentication
  • id7r.com - Id7r turns every email address into an OpenID identifier. No registration is necessary
  • Identitude - An OpenID Provider backed by Facebook Accounts and profile information
  • IDMobs.com First OpenID provider for mobile phones. Free, light, secure
  • idproxy.net - lets you use your Yahoo! account as an OpenID
  • My vAuth ID OpenID IdP supporting speaker verification for strong authentication offered by VxV Solutions
  • openid.35.com OpenId.35.com is a FREE,Secure SSL-enabled OpenId Service provider, combined with some social network features that let users connect with each other
  • openid.nabber.org - Free proxy that translates your existing e-mail address into an OpenID URL and authentication service
  • OpenID.org.cn Free OpenID server and authentication service with multiple credentials such as single password, Google Account etc.
  • OpenProfile Extends OpenID to maintain and serve profile information via hcard and vCard
  • Own-ID - free service that lets you use your own domain name as your OpenID
  • prooveme.com - Certificate based OpenID; Strong authentication without passwords
  • ProtectNetwork OpenID, Shibboleth and SAML standards compliant identity server by 9Star Research, Inc 
  • SignOn.com - OpenID Provider with support for Information Cards
  • SmartCom
  • StartSSL- Uses only client-side SSL certificates for authentication and SSL/TLS encryption for transport.
  • sxipper - Firefox plugin for OpenID
  • Typekey - and here's how to make TypeKey your own OpenID server
  • Videntity.org
  • tiny.id7r.com - provides short URL as "alias" of long OpenID URL
  • TrustBearer OpenID- Uses smart cards, security tokens or biometric readers to authenticate users

Providers Outside the U.S./Foreign Language Support:

  • Anonymous OpenID - Free, Anonymous OpenID Provider. No signup required. Also the First (free) Indian OpenID server
  • Daum OpenID- Korean OpenID provider by Daum.net
  • fcid.net - a chinese OpenID provider.
  • IDtail.com - OpenID provider for Korean (by Hedgeplus.net in AhnLab.com; English planned)
  • isOpenID- Russian OpenID provider
  • netliberty.ru is an identity provider that includes OpenID server
  • OpenID.cn Free OpenID server and authentication service in Chinese
  • OpenID.cz Free OpenID server (Czech)
  • openid.blogs.es - First Spanish OpenID server; free
  • opendaumid.net Lets you use your DAUM account as an OpenID.(korean)
  • openid.com.gr - The first greek openID Provider
  • OpenID.ee - Ultra-secure OpenID provider using smart cards - requires no registration nor passwords and uses Estonian eID card and GSM SIM cards for strong authentication
  • OpenID Espa, Spanish free OpenID provider
  • OpenID France - First French OpenID server; free
  • OpenID in Estonia
  • OpenID Italia, OpenID Italia, free OpenID provider
  • OpenID.LT - Lithuanian OpenID provider.
  • OpenID.me.uk First United Kingdom OpenID provider with strong authentication. (2008/02/05 - not yet currently live)
  • OpenID.ne.jp - First Japanese OpenID server; free
  • openid.net.in Free Indian OpenID Provider
  • openid.openminds.be - First Belgian OpenID provider; Free, uses Strong authentication (SSL); Vraag je gratis OpenID account vandaag aan
  • OpenID.ph - OpenID Philippines (English and Tagalog) is the first Filipino OpenID server (free)
  • OpenID.PL - first Polish OpenID server; free
  • OpenID Portugal, First Free portugal OpenID provider
  • openidprovider - A new Open ID Provider Based in the netherlands.
  • openid.xmpp.za.net - The South African XMPP Federation OpenID Server (uses XEP-0070 to authenticate any jabber/xmpp account)
  • MeinGuter.Name Secure German OpenID provider with focus on reputation building
  • mi OpenID - Spanish free OpenID provider with strong authentication and hostname as OpenID (user.miopenid.es)
  • Mi ID.es- First OpenID provider with activity stream from several web services.
  • MijnOpenID.nl First Dutch OpenID server. Is controlled by the OpenID Europe Foundation. Each OpenID user own a part of the Foundation
  • MoiKrug.ru - Free OpenID service with profile in the largest professional social network in Russia
  • mojID.com, First Slovenian secure OpenID provider.
  • myID.net - First Korean OpenID server; get Free
  • myID.pl - Polish OpenID server; free. The shortest URL.
  • mysecond.name Free OpenID server and authentication service in Chinese , also support internet account management and open icon functions
  • my.xlogon.net Free german OpenID provider, T&C according german laws, multiple Identity, multiple Personas, SSL only.
  • regged.de provides a free OpenID server in German, now has IPv6 support
  • ThaiID.net- The first free OpenID provider for Thai people
  • Wong Cyber Wong Cyber - Indonesian first OpenID server
  • www.hkopenid.com, Hong Kong OpenID , Hong Kong free OpenID provider, targeting on providing extra localized service.
  • www.ohmyid.com - Free OpenID provider for Korean
  • www.openid.hk, OpenID Hong Kong, free OpenID provider
  • www.tunnnus.com, Finnish OpenID provider. (Also homepage forwarding from your OpenID-url)

Feeling Geeky? You can make your own OpenID

OpenID Resources

Where You Can Use OpenID (Major Web Sites Only)

Other websites:

You can find a more complete list of sites supporting OpenID logins at the OpenID Site Directory.

Conclusion

It seems that there are currently many more places you can get an OpenID today than there are places to use one. We covered some of our concerns about the adoption rates previously in this post: "The Troubles with OpenID 2.0."

Right now, everyone is still counting on Digg to be the next big player supporting openID, thanks to this January, 2008 blog post, mentioning their plans to support more open standards.

Despite its benefits, OpenID still remains too hard to add to your site and logging in is not always a smooth process. That's where a company like Clickpass has a real edge. Clickpass, which is powered by OpenID, wants to make OpenID easy to use in order to bring the benefits of single-sign-on to everyone. Currently, only a few places support Clickpass - Disqus, Ma.gnolia., Plaxo, TrustedPlaces, and Wordpress (via a plugin) - but they promise there are more to come. I certainly hope so because using Clickpass was just as easy as they promised, so I really hope it takes off.

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  1. What I find frustrating is the lack of adoption of new OpenID 2.0 features. For instance, can anyone tell me how to setup an OpenID server that supports attribute exchange? I've tried several packages already, with no success. I know the current JanRain libraries include AX code, but I haven't yet figured out how to integrate them into a working server. Any help or links here would be greatly appreciated.

    Posted by: Joey Tyson | April 3, 2008 12:31 PM



  2. I have found that everybody (including openid.net) seems to mention Blogger id wrong. It is not username.blogger.com but http://BLOGID.blogspot.com/ ie Blog URL.

    Also, if you are using Custom URL with Blogger, then it is Custom URL such as http://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/.

    You can use any or all your Blogger Blogs as OpenID.

    Posted by: ABHILASH | April 3, 2008 12:40 PM



  3. New Zealand OpenID provider: http://openid.co.nz

    Posted by: Mike Riversdale | April 3, 2008 1:39 PM



  4. Very goog article. This is the most comprehensive coverage that i've ever read...

    Posted by: Aikibudokan | April 3, 2008 1:41 PM



  5. I wished I could've left this comment with my Vidoop OpenID, but unfortunately Read/Write Web doesn't support secured (SSL) OpenID authentication. I blogged about it last week and Richard says he's looking into it. It would be neat if a "web 2.0" site such as RWW fully supported OpenID.

    Posted by: Aaron B. Hockley | April 3, 2008 1:53 PM



  6. There's a really nice article here:

    http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/2007/01/03/OpenID-for-non-SuperUsers

    with easy instructions on how to set up openID delegation so that you can use a 3rd party openID provider but still have your id be something like your personal blog. Loving the cake and eating it too. :)

    Posted by: felix | April 3, 2008 2:02 PM



  7. As for International support, the TrustBearer OpenID service supports the Finnish National ID.

    Also, many of the links in this article don't appear to work.

    Posted by: stevepepple | April 3, 2008 2:44 PM



  8. Everybody (including Openid.net) seems to have wrong OpenID URL for Blogger. It is not username.blogger.com but actual Blog URL (BLOGID.blogspot.com).

    Also, if you are using Blogger to forward to Custom domain, then you can also use it (http://www.DOMAINNAME.com) as your OpenID.

    You can any or all of your blog URL as OpenID.

    Posted by: abhilash | April 3, 2008 2:57 PM



  9. @stevepepple the links are fixed, thanks!

     Posted by: Sarah Perez Author Profile Page | April 3, 2008 3:04 PM



  10. I still find that OpenID is not being used extensively. Yahoo adoption of OpenID may have a good impact on this. It's good to see all the links at one place.

    Posted by: Pradeep Kumar Mishra | April 3, 2008 4:06 PM



  11. Good post. I didn't know much if anything about OpenID. The UserID/Password paradigm will have to change soon. OpenID is a good idea in improving usability and getting closer to having a single user sign across websites but I'm not sure how secure it is, makes me a bit nervous. I'm hoping for a "real" breakthrough in the realm of web authentication, something involving biometrics possibly? Nothing will ever be 100% secure, but there are various degrees of vulnerabilities/risk associated with different solutions.

    Posted by: Tashjian - webshop | April 3, 2008 5:06 PM



  12. Blogger is actually both an OpenID provider and an OpenID relying party: Blogger users can use their blog url as OpenID, and anyone can use OpenID to leave comments on Blogger blogs.

    Posted by: Thomas Oldervoll | April 3, 2008 6:09 PM



  13. Time to start educating users about OpenID. Not very much developed but useful when you are asked about 'yours' that sometimes you have created but don't recall it at that time.

    And as Tyson said: the most comprehensive coverage that i've ever read on OpenID. Thanks.

    Posted by: TonNet | April 3, 2008 6:23 PM



  14. Thank you for the article. It's good to know that many services support OpenID. Especially, I have been looking for a tool to write online and to manage my research information. I found that Springnote is quite useful to organize stuff.
    Hopefully, there are more tools available online with OpenID so that I do not need to sign up every time I find a good tool…..

    Posted by: Yoon | April 3, 2008 10:32 PM



  15. Not on the list is the New Zealand OpenID provider: http://openid.co.nz

    Posted by: Mike Riversdale | April 3, 2008 10:39 PM



  16. Please change open-id.es per http://openid.es, this is the correct url ;-) thanks :)

    Posted by: David Carrero Fdez-B | April 4, 2008 12:40 AM



  17. I see a lot of adoption of openID 'providers' but little adoption from openID consumers.

    I also see a lot of blogs about getting an ID / configuring your own service etc.

    I think a follow up post on the benefits of adopting openID for your service rather than implementing your own authorisation system would be interesting to read (and more challenging to produce).
    Some research into why it isn't being used so much would make a nice touch.

    This is a great repository of the current state of openID today. Thanks for the post

    Posted by: IanB | April 4, 2008 4:38 AM



  18. Great post. Didn't know that MoiKrug.ru acts as an OpenID provider as well :)

    I've been using OpenID for about a year now, and it makes wonders. However, it seems that big companies are not willing to support OpenID. Indeed, Yahoo rolled out OpenID, but it doesn't support OpenID certificates of other providers - a rather hypocritical approach.

    There is a lot of buzz right around OpenID, but FriendFeed and alike are taking the lead. Maybe it's a good time to fix "login fatigue" and then proceed with creation of thousand startups every day?

    Posted by: nlupus.myopenid.com Author Profile Page | April 4, 2008 5:35 AM



  19. Oh, and BTW it's strange that no one here has logined with there OpenID pass... Well, except me :)

    Posted by: nlupus.myopenid.com Author Profile Page | April 4, 2008 5:38 AM



  20. Just for info there is also openidfrance.fr which is a french OpenID provider. Anyway, currently I haven't found a website which take info from your openid account. It's just used for the login. It would be great to get name/country and so on from the openid account..

    Posted by: Jeremy | April 4, 2008 5:44 AM



  21. FYI, OpenID.ee and OpenID in Estonia is the same provider.

    Posted by: notsorelevant.com Author Profile Page | April 4, 2008 7:24 AM



  22. I need to get one. I am apart of so many different things, its hard to keep track of my logins and what not.

    Posted by: VTFootballGrad | April 4, 2008 9:10 AM



  23. One hell of a messup. Do people really think this makes like easier for the average user?

    Posted by: lmjabreu | April 4, 2008 9:21 AM



  24. We ourselves are looking into using OpenID, but I must say - we're a little bit hesitant for some of the reasons mentioned above.

    Posted by: fumiNET | April 4, 2008 11:30 AM



  25. Unfortunately, ReadWriteWeb doesn't support OpenID 2.0, it only seems to support OpenID 1.1.

    Yahoo only supports OpenID 2.0, so Yahoo/Flickr users can't sign their comments. Please contact me directly if you'd like some help with upgrading to OpenID 2.0.

    Allen


    Posted by: Allen Tom | April 4, 2008 1:48 PM



  26. A slight correction on Ma.gnolia's OpenID support: new accounts can be made with OpenID OR a Facebook account.

    Posted by: Todd Sieling | April 4, 2008 7:04 PM



  27. @nlupus: And why would that be? I would say because using OpenID solely as a single sign-on or for blog comments fails to provide enough benefit to be worth it very often. I can use "remember personal info" on RWW to get a similar effect - why bother using an OpenID to leave a comment?

    In other words, OpenID adoption will only rise if OpenID brings users enough benefits to adopt it. Right now, OpenID seems to be an alternative to creating a username and password on a site... and not much else.

    So what are other perks OpenID could provide? Well, how about not simply creating an account on a new site, but automatically importing contact information and other relevant data... which is exactly the kind of functionality Attribute Exchange provides.

    Which brings me back to my original comment - why aren't we seeing use of features beyond the basics of OpenID? And why is it so difficult for an amateur developer (like myself) to setup an OpenID 2.0 server which does take advantage of such features?

    I, personally, am getting a bit disillusioned with OpenID... I see some great potential uses and I want it to work, but it's given me so much trouble that I'm starting to look at other approaches.

    Posted by: Joey Tyson | April 4, 2008 11:25 PM



  28. Please note that the Italian provider you linked (openiditalia.it) is currently not operative and just holds a mailing list.
    A barebones Italian open id provider is id.bzaar.net

    Posted by: bru.myopenid.com Author Profile Page | April 5, 2008 1:12 AM



  29. This is first time in my life when I don’t know what to say. After reading all comments I’m shocked. What has happened with our society, with our young generation? They are commenting terrible information, their lexis sounds terrible. Is that true, that only words they know is “cool”, “cute” and cussing words? What are they thinking of? It’s better not to think about it, it’s too sad

    Posted by: bata99 | April 11, 2008 12:15 AM



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