Protocols, protocols, everywhere, and not a drop to drink. OAuth, OpenID, UX, Shibboleth, SAML, XRI, FOAF, Facebook Connect, that is a small sampling of some of the technologies that have been invented to move Internet Identity forward forward for the web.
Today, at the Open ID User Experience Summit, a jaw-dropping statistic was given that 89% of users coming to LadyGaga.com chose a third-party logon rather than create a new account. “Signup with Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace” is the default option on LadyGaga.com – and it works.
Do You Have the Credentials: Want to be on the Guestlist?
We wondered why is this site getting such high level of adoption of third-party logons, which hasn’t been seen at this level anywhere else.
It seems that in addition to the momentum of the OpenID community, part of the story is about the landscape change occurring around video content. One great example is in the changes at YouTube including the Vevo ad wall. More than ever, tracking of the users that access protected content is becoming the norm. Even innocent phenomena like Rickrolling have been at risk as copyright holders are removing more and more content from YouTube.
Have you seen one of these notices on YouTube before?
It’s an example of a piece of content that has been pulled. Vevo now serves up the same thing, and the content owner is provided with marketing tools to place around the content -ads, placement, positioning.
Google likes to get paid. It’s easy to see that while searching for Lady Gaga on the current version of Youtube. In contrast to the list of free videos that once once stood, sites like LadyGaga.com are offered as one of the top links right next to the Vevo-supported link. Somewhere, in an office in Mountain View, there is a voice whispering “Show me the money“.
Third Party Logon: Facebook and Twitter Connect our Personas
Ironically, when clicking on the link from YouTube and arriving at LadyGaga.com, the most prominent third-party logon solutions displayed are Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. Universal Music uses the RPX services based solution by
, a Portland, Oregon company to power this capability for the site.
Yesterday, at the OpenIDUX community meeting in Chicago, Brian Ellin of JanRain presented a set of slides on best practices in the OpenID world for User Experience and third-party logon.
This talk included best practices and notes from JanRain, the company he works for, supported population of 173,000 web sites that use it for a third party logon. The company offers credentialing from over 10 key identity providers including Twitter, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and soon LinkedIn.
Identity as a Service
For the user, there is little reason to know the technology that is behind the scenes. All we need is to be able to easily choose the provider we want – and that it all works. In fact, when it’s done right, it’s is less clicks and time. And of course, one less password to remember.
That being said, on the LadyGaga.com site at least three protocols are supported from the home page alone: OAuth for Twitter, Facebook Connect, and OpenID with MySpace. Getting the experience right first, has allowed these companies to support the work of integrated logon experience while the industry continues to innovate on the different core protocols for sharing identity across websites.
We spoke Lisa Hannah, Director of Marketing at JanRain. She shared information on their analysis of the social media trends of third party logon users. They represent a balance in building industry relationships, while at the same time finding consumer solutions that work well enough to drive adoption.
The Nice Thing About Change is That it Requires a Lot of Hard Work
The OpenID community iterating the solution to get it right. The organizations and leaders in the community, including individuals like Brian Kissel, Allen Tom, Monica Keller, Mike Jones, Joseph Smarr, Eric Sachs, David Recorden and Chris Messina have continued to build momentum in the community and find common ground – even beyond where the companies they represent (Google, Microsoft, Facebook) are deciding on the balance of power of this generation of the Internet.
Third-party logon is becoming standard practice. And like many things, it becomes easier to use with time. For this user, it’s starting to feel familiar, like an old friend.
We’d Like to Ask Lady Gaga to Solve Health Care
It had to happen somewhere, and LadyGaga.com is the site that shows us a glimpse of a new world of the Internet. Behavior change is all about the incentive – and bling. Perhaps this type of evidence will motivate the federal government in the direction of third-party logon.
In the case of identity on the Internet, it is clear that there is benefit when open, mixed, and hybrid solutions are supported for the good of the user. As always, the experience is what matters.
We’ll continue looking at Lady Gaga and third-party logon in an upcoming piece where we go through the details from a user experience and technical view.
Do you support the movement towards users signing in using third-party logons? What do you think about Twitter’s OAuth, Facebook Connect and OpenID?
