[OpenID] OpenID based on email addresses... Just Works!

[Martin Atkins]

David Fuelling wrote:
> 
> The problem with using the mailto: schemed identifier as the 
> "claimed_identifier" is that it is not "commonly resolvable" in the same 
> way that a URL is.  It requires a "mapping scheme" (like EAUT) or some 
> other translation mechanism (DNS lookup?), which isn't built into common 
> software like the web-browser, my blackberry, my iPhone, my Tivo, the 
> space shuttle, etc. 
> 
> Firefox aside, I think it will be an uphill battle to try to get a 
> mailto: schemed identifier to be supported on all the various platforms 
> out there.  We should be sticking to URLs as identifiers, which is why 
> mapping the email address to a URL seems like a better plan than using 
> the mailto: scheme as a new form of OpenID Identifier. 
> 
> I know there are good arguements for/against -- this is a years-old 
> debate....but I think it's essentially what we're disagreeing about -- 
> should the email address be the OpenID, or should it just map to an OpenID.
> 

What's the use case for being able to "resolve" OpenID identifiers in 
web browsers?

Most identifiers today don't give you anything useful in the web browser 
context. Microsoft's are blank, may just say "This is an OpenID 
identifier"...