[OpenID] Combining Google & Yahoo user experience research

Tue Oct 14 21:10:21 UTC 2008

On Oct 14, 2008, at 11:48 , Allen Tom wrote:

> I do think that URL based identifiers are ideal, however it seems  
> that RPs may want an even lighter weight way to start using OpenID,  
> so defining a use case for Email Verification could be a way to  
> transition RPs to OpenID.

I'd really love to have a general-purpose e-mail address to HTTP URL  
mapping scheme. [but read on]

That would:
  - let users use e-mail addresses in all places of HTTP OpenIDs
  - let anybody type the e-mail address printed on my business card  
into a browser address field, and miraculously my home page came up.

It would also keep one of the (the biggest?) reasons for having URLs  
in the first place as identifiers for people, which is that they can  
participate in a peer protocol with sites. (Imagine if companies only  
had e-mail addresses, and no HTTP sites)

Big downside: browser support needed.

It could be a as simple as resolving an e-mail address to an XRDS  
file, which contains a "home page" service entry.

Am I just dreaming?

Johannes Ernst
NetMesh Inc.

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