ANTenna Blog -- Networking & Communications

The Open ID Foundation Board has gained five influential new members in Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign, and Yahoo. The companies' participation should help spur the adoption of a single-sign-on service for the Web.

As it stands, starting to use a new Web service usually means entering the same registration information every other Web service already has, plus trying to decide what password to use. With Open ID, a user would enter a single URL into the logon field, and their identity would be verified by an Open ID issuer. So far, more than 10,000 Web sites have agreed to accept Open ID, but few of the most-trafficked sites.

The support of the five technology giants should dramatically increase the rate of adoption of OpenID. The result should be easier e-commerce for both buyers and sellers, as buyers only need to remember one password to shop multiple sites, and businesses don't need to build their own registration system from scratch.