Facebook Joins OpenID Party

Good news for those of us fed up with juggling multiple sets of user credentials: Facebook has taking a big step forwards in support of OpenID.

OpenID is “an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity”. For most users it simply means being able to use different sites without having to keep logging in. For the more technically minded it provides a lot of freedom to control your own credentials rather than relying on a proprietary system.

Facebook have now adopted OpenID as a “relying party”, at least to some degree. You can now create a new account using your gmail credentials, or link these to an existing account. So far it’s gmail only which is a long way from full multi-provider OpenID support – but a good first step. Facebook’s Luke Shepard says:

In tests we’ve run, we’ve noticed that first-time users who register on the site with OpenID are more likely to become active Facebook users. They get up and running after registering even faster than before, find their friends easily, and quickly engage on the site.

Shepard also says:

We’ll keep working on the OpenID experience to make it even better for new and existing users. And we’ll continue to work with the OpenID community and others on advancing openness on the Web.

All of which is good news for Facebook users and great news for OpenID.