Messina pointed this out a few days ago, and there’s been chatter, but now we have confirmation from AOL about their OpenID strategy going forward. As of this morning, AOL’s ~20 million subscribers all have OpenID. Just like that.
This is how markets and technologies evolve. Adoption of OpenID by a major provider like AOL (or Myspace, or Facebook) will bring OpenID consuming companies to the market. This drives the overall OpenID pool size, making it a significant faction that vendors like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft can’t ignore. Factor in killer apps (coming in 2007), and you’ve got a revolution on your hands.
Microsoft has already gone far with Cardspace integration and public support. Yahoo’s coming along, especially with helpful efforts like Simon Willison’s Idproxy. Google’s head is still buried deeply in the sand, hawking the so-1999 siloed efforts of Google Accounts. Will this sleeping giant wake up and see the value of OpenID?
Update: I’ve got the stats wrong on this – it is actually 63 Million+. See this post for more information.
sweet! that’s great news!
i do have a small nit to pick with your analysis, though. idproxy.net was written by Simon Willison, who isn’t connected with Yahoo at all. given that, Yahoo as a company isn’t really “coming along” any more than Google is.
Well, actually, Simon Willison was connected to Yahoo, and I’m going to give Yahoo the benefit of the doubt because they haven’t C&D’s idproxy, and they hire people like Willison.
That said, I’ve changed my copy to put a little distance between Yahoo and idproxy.
Google, on the other hand, seems very against OpenID. All I’ve seen from a certain Google employee on the Identity Gang listserv is negativity towards the idea (though his criticisms do make the product stronger).
I interrupted my work on “On to convince MySpace to use OpenID” to take a glimpse at your blog:
- agree with danah, disagree with you on FaceBook gifts (it’s stupid, it’s expensive, it’s forgetfull: ringtones2.0!) No time to make my point a little clearer yet;
- How come Google invited you and disagree with your product? What was that guy’s argument (You don’t associate it with the company necessarily: I just can’t imagine he was publicly pointing at a monopoly-by- wall-garden benefits)
Oh Bertil,
danah and I see the gifts thing a little differently, but I think we’re far from calling any argument right or wrong – obviously there’s a continuum there. Some people will use these purchases for one goal, some for another – a population of millions is to vast to generalize upon at that intentional level (and you know this! this is one of the reasons why qualitative research exists!).
I’m a little confused about the Google thing. Google hasn’t disagreed with me personally (well, except for once), I’m just talking about interactions I’ve seen between a Google employee and others on the Identity Gang mailing list. Since that list is private I am going to not name names, but this fellow is quite well known and vocal about his feelings, so I’m really not reporting anything new.