Yahoo Opens to OpenID Beta Testing

Yahoo announced earlier in the month that they were joining the OpenID movement, where users can log into various membership driven Internet properties using one central identification, profile and password.

Yahoo’s OpenID Provider service lets all 250+ million global Yahoo Network members sign into any site which offers OpenID 2.0, simply by using their Yahoo ID.

Yahoo says that key features and benefits of Yahoo joining OpenID include:

• Usability – Users will not have to understand the technical details of OpenID simply to use the technology. Thanks to features introduced in the OpenID 2.0 specification, users will not have to type their OpenID URL while signing in to websites. They can simply type yahoo.com in the OpenID textbox or, if the Relying Party website provides it, click a button that takes them to Yahoo!. By not requiring users to understand the meaning of an OpenID URL, we hope that more users will be able to overcome the initial hurdles of using this new echnology. For those of you who want to set up a custom URL, we will provide a way to do so, including the ability to use your Flickr photos page as your OpenID URL.
• User education – We have spent a great deal of time thinking about educating users on the proper use of OpenID and you will see some of these thoughts implemented throughout our service – whether it’s an explanation of the benefits of OpenID, our OpenID tour, or messaging on the safe use of OpenID at various locations.
• Anti-phishing measures – We suggest that users of the Yahoo! OpenID service set up and look for their Sign-in Seal to confirm that they are entering their password on a genuine Yahoo! page. A Sign-in Seal is a user-created image or a message that will only appear on genuine Yahoo! pages. We hope to continue working with the OpenID community to combat phishing and provide more secure experiences to users.

More on Yahoo OpenID and OpenID 2.0 from Yahoo’s Jeremy Zawodny and Allen Tom of the Yahoo Registration Team. Yahoo has also put together a gallery of other sites which support OpenID 2.0 and the Yahoo OpenID service.