OpenID 2.0 Officially Launches – Still Missing The Marketing

At the Internet Identity Workshop today, OpenID 2.0 officially launched. At the NY Tech Meetup last night, someone commented to me that OpenID just isn’t worth it in its current form and that he created an OpenID but can’t remember what it is or how to use it. I wrote up my thoughts and recap of my conversation with JanRain Founder Larry Drebes. Richard has some additional commentary on the final release today. It’s still missing the marketing. I will keep saying this until it’s fixed.

Janrain noted today – OpenID 2.0 offers an improved user experience for consumers and reduces Web application development time by up to 30-40%.

New features for users include:

• Security Improvements – Heightened authentication procedures dramatically reduce the risk of identity theft and phishing attacks.
• Attribute Exchange – Enables OpenIDs to transport detailed profile information including frequent flyer numbers, calendar information and favorite books and movies.
• Directed Identity – Individuals who wish to maintain more than one profile now have access to single sign-on without the using the same OpenID on each site.

New features for developers include:

• Ubiquitous Library Support – Application developers benefit from high-quality library support available from JanRain and other vendors for all popular languages and platforms.
• Extensible Discovery – XML based OpenID discovery. Rich service content available at OpenID service endpoint.
• Extensions – Formalized extensions enable new technologies such as Attribute Exchange.
• Identifier Recycling – Formal policies and procedures now exist to handle expired OpenIDs.