Easier Logins

He already had me thinking about it (yes, a discussion on Twitter), but then he sent a tweet that pushed me to write about it.

Not that this isn’t being worked on. OpenID was started with that very intent. The problem is the general public doesn’t know what OpenID is. If we don’t know what it is, we won’t use it. If it’s too hard to use, we won’t use it. Furthermore, if it isn’t there to use, we won’t use it.

That’s right, a disturbingly large number of sites still don’t provide OpenID as an option. It’s astounding how many blogs out there have a comment system that requires me to have their specific login in order to comment, or at the very least, an alternative option. Blogger is among them, which is sad, because Google should know better.

A universal login doesn’t necessarily have to be one login that is standardized world wide. I’m not sure I’d even want that. To me, a universal login is something that gives me 3 or more very popular options. There may be more, but off the top of my head I can refer you to JS-Kit’s Echo, Disqus, and Intense Debate. For those that have it, they all offer OpenID login. They also offer Facebook and Twitter login. Those pretty much cover it, if you don’t have at least one of those three accounts, you probably aren’t giving any though to commenting on anything.

So maybe universal login isn’t what we’re after. Just an easier login. Much of the blame can be placed on the shoulders of those running websites or blogs. They need to be on top of things and realize that they need easy options. Even with the options I have enabled with Echo, some people still think it’s a bit too much effort. So why would we sign up for another specific service just to leave a comment?

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