I've been reading a lot about OpenID, a free, decentralized framework for managing digital identities. You start with an URI (think of it as a master username) and store your password and other creditials with an OpenID provider. You can then log into any OpenID enabled service with your URI. The service will fetch whatever credentials it needs from your identity provider.
Simon Willison wrote a great post on cool things you can do with OpenID. My favorite is restricted single sign on. Simon suggested that if everyone in an organization had "username.internal.example.org" OpenIDs, all internal apps behind the firewall could be configured to grant automatic access to such users. This eliminates the hassle of creating/deleting accounts on each service for incoming/departing employees. Couldn't GoDaddy use a similar method to apply the same logins across its many services?
I'm also intrigued by Kai Hendry's comment that maybe OpenID can be used for brokering payments. This would allow access pass holders to view content, download songs, etc across multiple sites. Not that this technology isn't already available, but OpenID would save subscribers from having to keep track of different logins for different networks.
Anyway, Microsoft announced last month that it would make Windows Cardspace interoperable with OpenID. A couple of weeks later, AOL announced its support as well. SixApart is in (in fact, OpenID creator Brad Fitzpatrick also developed LiveJournal, and is SixApart's chief architect). And Digg. And ImageShack, WordPress, Technorati, SmugMug, 37Signals...
Recently I signed up for isabel.wang.name as my OpenID through FreeYourID (which I read about on TechCrunch). If nothing else, they managed to sell me a .name domain. My question is, why isn't 1&1 in this market as well?
Some interesting comments on our own OpenID post at our blog:
http://blog.bluefur.com/2007/02/27/are-we-ready-fo...
Earlier today I was experimenting with their QuickBlog service (disappointed that they still don't allow users to embed third party widgets). Even though I was already logged into my GoDaddy account, the setup process required a second userid and password. Likewise, 1&1 recently sent out a beta invite for their live meeting service, which customers have to create a separate account for.
As Simon says in his post, you can implement OpenID as a site specific hack, or use it to "project" identities between two services to give users a more seamless experience.