What is OpenID and how to use your Gmail account as OpenID.
This post introduces you to the concept of OpenID and also explains how you can use your Gmail account as an OpenID.
OpenID
To begin with, lets start with the basics. So what exactly is an OpenID?
OpenID is a free framework that eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites. If you have a Microsoft Live Mail account, a Yahoo account, or a Google account, you can log in with those same credentials on other websites like AOL, MySpace, Plaxo,Zoho or Buxfer, without having to create a new account on any of these sites.
Where all can you use OpenID?
You can use your OpenID on any one of a growing number of sites (nearly ten-thousand) which support OpenID. Here are some places you can visit to see where you can use your OpenID to log in today:
How can you get an OpenID for yourself?
A lot of popular services like Yahoo, Gmail, Technorati, Wordpress etc are already OpenID providers. You can check out a comprehensive list of OpenID providers here.
How to use your Gmail account as an OpenID?
In order to use your Gmail account as an OpenID, all you need to do is visit the website with the support for OpenID. While on this website, If the user enters a Gmail address and indicates that he or she does not have a password for this site, then the site can redirect him or her to Google. Lets assume the website being surfed is Kidmallpics.com.
Sign in with Gmail OpenID
The user would then be taken to the Google website and asked to confirm whether he or she wants to sign in to KidMallPics.
Confirm using OpenID login
Finally, the user would be redirected back to KidMallPics, where he or she would be immediately signed in.
User logged in using OpenID
However, this was for those websites which allow you to enter a user id. There do exist quite a lot of websites which require you to enter a URL when logging in using OpenID. In such scenario, check out openid-provider.appspot.com. This site, built on Google App Engine, allows you to create a OpenID URL from your Google Account Credentials. Login with your Gmail username and password and the site will provide you a URL likehttp://openid-provider.appspot.com/<username>, which you can use on regular OpenID accepting sites.
Source: Google Code Blog
Also read: [How-To] Create Group Mailing Lists in Gmail
[How-To] Change your display language in Gmail
Logging into Gmail using HTTPS
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Cheers
Vaibhav Pandey
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- Backup your Gmail Account.
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- [Gmail] Backup Your Gmail account with Gmail Backup
- Learning SEO Best Practices from Google.
A couple of cautionary points. Currently, Google is testing their OpenID infrastructure. During this testing period, they support only pre-registered RPs. Furthermore, they are proposing a non-standard UI, which in my opinion goes against the principles of OpenID. For these reasons, we are not participating in their trials. The bottom line is not all sites can accept GMail as OpenID.
The second point is that OpenID does not obviate the need to register in new sites. It only simplifies authentication. It is to be expected that RPs will require registration. To wit credit card information may not be provided by an OP but may be required by an RP.
[...] Using OpenID to log in to thousands of sites Vaibhav from Technofriends wrote a great article on OpenID today, and he even explains how to use your Gmail credentials to [...]
[...] What is OpenID and how to use your Gmail account as OpenID. « Technofriends 10 November , 2008 at 1:58 pm | In personal | Tags: openid via What is OpenID and how to use your Gmail account as OpenID. « Technofriends [...]
Thanks for the great overview Vaibhav. One area you didn’t cover was how websites can become OpenID-enabled. There are good open source libraries at http://www.openidenabled.com/ and http://wiki.openid.net/Libraries
Additionally, there are tutorials available at http://openid.net/developers/
Finally, there are a range of hosted solutions available at http://www.rpxnow.com
[...] What is OpenID and how to use your Gmail account as OpenID. [...]
[...] What is OpenID and how to use your Gmail account as OpenID. [...]
Thanks for the article bro, its something new 4 me.
But dont u think it increases the chances of PHISHING and u may end up loosing ur own account.
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Hi, I can
Hey. Great logo. Can you tell which font you have used in it?