[OpenID] Flickr users can now login with a Google account via OpenID

[Allen Tom]

Hi Dick,

The primary goal of the OpenID login feature for Flickr was to *not* confuse
the tens of millions of existing Flickr users who already login to Flickr
using their Yahoo ID. The goal for the the initial release was to only
expose the OpenID feature for new users who do not already have a YahooID,
since we wanted to be able to reach new users who did not have a YahooID but
did have an OpenID-enabled account.

The original prototype of the OpenID-enabled Flickr login screen checked the
user's browser cookies to see if the anyone had previously used a YahooID on
the browser. If so, the Google OpenID button would be de-emphasized, since
we did not want to potentially confuse an existing user (who already knows
how to login to Flickr with a YahooID)  by presenting an additional Login
option.  We also experimented with the x-has-session interface defined in
the OpenID User Interface Extension to determine if the user was currently
logged into Google - if the user did not have have a YahooID AND was
currently logged into Google, we would put Google as the default Login
option - in this case, where the user did not appear to have a YahooID AND
was currently logged into Google - the Flickr login screen
would prioritize the Google OpenID option as the primary call to action -
even above the YahooID login option.

We did experiment with account linking - meaning that if the user already
had a Flickr account bound to a YahooID, and then logged in with a Google
Account - we had a flow for the user to link the Google account with their
existing Flickr account, without having to create a new Flickr account.
Unfortunately, the resulting flow was very complex. Given that the primary
business objective was to open Flickr up to users who did not already have a
YahooID, and to get these new users out of the registration flow and engaged
in the Flickr product ASAP, we decided to defer the account linking flow to
a future release - after we had a chance to observe the real world
performance of the OpenID flows. In the meantime, we decided to put in logic
into the Flickr Login screen to de-emphasize the OpenID flow for users who
probably already had a YahooID, with the hope that these existing users
continue to login to Flickr with their YahooID without potentially being
distracted by the new OpenID flow which was not intended for them.

Since I no longer work at Yahoo, I'm not quite sure about the exact details
of the finished product that launched this week, but that what the thinking
that we had while I was on the project before I left.

Hope that make sense!
Allen


>
> On Sat, Oct 30, 2010 at 5:09 PM, Dick Hardt <dick.hardt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I could not find any way to use any of my Google accounts to log into my
>> existing Flickr account -- I only see where I can create a new Flickr
>> account with a Google account.
>>
>> While it is nice to see progress -- IMHO we are a LONG ways from solving
>> identity from the user's point of view -- and that leads to my concern --
>> although it was alot of work to get this done -- I would be surprised if
>> your average user would consider this an improvement -- and may lead to more
>> confusion as they become uncertain as to which provider they have used at
>> which site.
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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