Limited Support for Identity Standard

Users with a Windows Live ID—an online identity issued by Microsoft—will be able to use that identity to access third-party sites that support the OpenID framework, a would-be standard for universal online user authentication. However, Microsoft is not accepting OpenID authentications issued by other providers. Microsoft’s move gives users another incentive to create and use a Live ID account, while doing little to further the standard itself. Other major online portals, including AOL, Google, and Yahoo, have taken similar approaches.

An Elusive Goal

Many Web sites require users to authenticate themselves by providing an identity consisting of a unique user name (which is sometimes tied to a valid e-mail address) and an associated password. As users repeat this process at many Web sites, they must remember and use the appropriate identity at each site.

Several organizations have tried to simplify online authentication by building identity systems that span multiple sites. In the late 1990s, Microsoft promoted its Passport system (since renamed Windows Live ID) for this purpose, and a group of companies led by Sun Microsystems and called the Liberty Alliance proposed another approach. However, no system has yet gained widespread support, and most users still have a different identity for each site they use. The rise of social networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace, has exacerbated the problem, as each site requires users to create a unique identity.