[OpenID] New OpenID Customer Research Activity - Google research on federated login

[Dick Hardt]

On 25-Sep-08, at 9:44 AM, Scott Kveton wrote:

>> Let's be clear, sites are asking for the user's email address --  
>> user's in
>> general are not typing in email address to be their username.
>
> Says who?  Based on the real-world usability studies I've seen as of
> late and the Content Provider discussions, that statement is totally
> wrong.

As you state below, CP's have trained users to use their email address  
as the account identifier ... users did not say "hey, I want to use my  
email address as my account identifier"


>
>
>> The advantage to a site of an email address is it is guaranteed to be
>> globally unique (user does not have to keep trying different  
>> usernames to
>> find one that is available). It also doubles as a mechanism for the  
>> user to
>> reset their password. Another big advantage is that it is much less  
>> likely
>> the user will forget their email address over a username specific  
>> to the
>> site.
>
> MySpace, Facebook, Amazon and others have trained users to use their
> email address as an identifier to login.  I'd be willing to bet a huge
> chunk of the Internet has accounts on all of those.


I have no idea what you point is here.

>
>
>> Sxipper does this. Site does not even need to do anything. Works with
>> existing password and profile forms. Click of a button and the user  
>> is
>> logged in!
>
> Now, if only the entire Internet was using Sxipper.  Oh wait ... :-)
>
> Seriously though, that fails the test for not confusing the user ...
> "we can give you a great experience, but first, go over to this site,
> install Firefox, then install an extension and then restart your
> browser ... and *then* OMG ... look how awesome it is!!"

Now you are just being obtuse. I'm pointing out that there are other  
ways of solving the problem.

All the major browsers already can remember usernames and passwords,  
and they  will often try to fill in forms for the user as well. It  
would be a fairly straight forward evolution of the browsers to  
provide Sxipper like functionality to further reduce the friction of  
logging in and filling in forms.


>
>
>> If this is all that OpenID is going to solve, then it is overkill.
>
> OpenID has to solve those simple things *first* to get adoption.  From
> there, it can do much more.  We have to crawl before we can walk.

If OpenID is not providing value, then it will not get adopted.

I don't think consumer SSO and form fill are that much of a problem --  
and as I am pointing out above, there are other ways to solve it from  
the consumer point of view.

-- Dick