Log in to an OpenID enabled websites has become more user friendly for Google users. They can use their Google profiles URL for login now.

Google has been an OpenID provider since October 2008 already. However users had to remember a rather cryptic URL, www.google.com/accounts/o8/id, which was the same for all users. Alternatively, relying parties and users could rely on the Google login button (see below), which led to the infamous NASCAR problem of OpenID, a term coined by Daniel Burka and made famous by Chris Messina.

Now users can log in with their Google profile URL. If you have a Gmail account or use any other Google service you already have a Google profile. Simply click this URL to find your profile: www.google.com/profiles/me. That’s definitely a URL which is easier to remember for users. Below is an example of a login with a Google profile:

Some good news regarding OpenID have been reported the last two days. Two major media and internet brands have adopted OpenID.

Yahoo! Becomes an OpenID Provider

If you are reading tech blogs regularly you have read the news somewhere else already: Yahoo! will become an OpenID provider by the end of the month. This is really good news as almost 250 million users with a Yahoo! account will have an OpenID then. Yahoo! simply turns its IDs – the current login to Yahoo! – into OpenIDs.

We don’t know the exact details of the OpenID implementation yet, though a few things are known already:

• OpenIDs will be very short: yahoo.com
• Flickr – a Yahoo! property – will also work as an OpenID: flickr.com
• Only OpenID 2.0 will be suppported
• Yahoo! won’t accept logins with other OpenIDs (yet)
• Some phishing-prevention features are built in

I am sure we will have a closer look at Yahoo! once OpenID support is live. Maybe we can gather enough information to add Yahoo! to the Provider Comparison page (any Yahoo! developers reading here?).

By the way, what will happen to Simon Willison’s idproxy.net project which is using Yahoo! IDs as OpenIDs already?

Login to CNN Political Market with an OpenID

It is possible to log in to CNN’s Political Market with an OpenID now. Unfortunately users have to sign up for an account first and then associate an OpenID with it. Admittedly, this could be done a lot easier. I tested it yesterday and it works great, though. Maybe this is a first step of OpenID adoption at CNN.

[via David Recordon]