OpenID: Great idea, bewildering consumer experience
miksovsky.blogs.com
miksovsky.blogs.com
What we really need is a way to wrap the OpenID sign up process within our site registration, and when the registration is done tell the user 'Hey, you now have an OpenID which you can use on tons of other sites!'. I doubt that many non-geek users will be wading through all OpenID pages to find out how to actually get one - they will use it if they can sign up for one on my site.
Also, there should be an OpenID signup form right on the front of the openid.net site - why isn't there? They could just send it to a random provider or something. OpenIDs are so easy to use once you have one, yet so difficult to get.
Here's another thing I'm considering: since all AIM addresses are OpenID's now, just ask people for their AIM address and never even mention OpenID. Maybe make the login form default to AIM with a little text link to switch to OpenID, for people who know what it is.
If I figure out a frictionless OpenID strategy, I'll post it up here on news.yc.
It seems like the only way something like OpenID could get its start is if a big player adopts it like wikipedia and the rest of us follow.
But a great creators community is starting to emerge here at ycombinator, perhaps with a forum or something here at hackers news we can lead the way to a universal ID system that would make the web better for everyone.
It would really help if a big player made a commitment to OpenID, but I'm not sure that's the only way it could catch on. If tons of smaller players could come together on a wrap-type system, we might eventually force the big fish to adopt it via pressure from the margins. It could happpen, it's a very compelling technology in a lot of ways. It would have to be really, really well-designed - that's key. I think it's do-able.
That being said, I want to see what YC-funded clickpass.com is like before I go crazy on some big new effort. If they have a killer solution I may just use that. Also, I doubt YC would appreciate it too much if I start an open-source competitor to one of their companies on hacker news.
Launching this month, according to their site. I'll be curious to see this.