Microsoft, Google, Yahoo Agree ... on Open ID

There are few things about the Web more annoying that having to keep track of a bazillion login names and passwords for all of the websites you visit.

For years, Web activists have pined for a day when there would be a single, universal login standard for all websites.

Today, that dream came much closer to reality, as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Verisign, and I.B.M. signed on the OpenID standard, which seeks to develop just such a universal standard.

The move is evidence of the increasing clout of the "open source" movement, which seeks to drive websites toward "interoperability." We have seen this trend in other areas, most notably Google's OpenSocial software platform, which seeks to create a standard for writing applications compatible across social networks.

So it should come as no surprise that the founder of OpenID is Google engineer Brad Fitzpatrick, who hatched the project as founder of LiveJournal, and has been a driving force behind OpenSocial.

"Google shares the OpenID Foundation's vision of a Web that's easy to use and built on open standards available to everyone," Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "OpenID was always intended to be a decentralized sign-on system, so it's fantastic to join a foundation committed to keeping it free and unencumbered by proprietary extensions."

Today, more than 10,000 Web sites support OpenID log-ins, according to the OpenID Foundation.

by Sam Gustin