[trustfundbaby]

I actually like this model too ... you're never going to get everybody to use one provider for storing their identities, because nobody will go and create one unless they absolutely need to.

So, it makes sense to go where users are. What I think needs to be done is standardize an api for the sites like twitter, facebook, Google and who-knows-what-in-the-future to use in providing accessing to user information to developers ...

That way, when superdupersocialnetworking.com explodes and has 1 billion users, providing sign on access to its users for your app is as simple as changing one or two lines of code.

That would be really awesome

[jarek]

> What I think needs to be done is standardize an api for the sites like twitter, facebook, Google and who-knows-what-in-the-future to use in providing accessing to user information to developers

It is my understanding that that's pretty much exactly what OpenID is.

[trustfundbaby]

a. Open ID is a protocol not an api ... I'm talking about something more akin to the old way twitter used to verify twitter logins in their api b. Open ID deals mainly with authentication ... I'm talking about both authenticating and providing access to limited user information ... email, name, phone ... that sort of thing.

I just think Open ID was over elaborate, I'm hoping something simpler could succeed where it has failed. Hope that makes sense.

[jarek]

You think OpenID was over elaborate but want to provide the user's phone number?

[trustfundbaby]

You're missing the point. I'm advocating for a general direction ... I don't have specifics..

Its not crazy. Facebook just announced something along those lines today http://marketaire.com/2010/12/23/facebook-registration-tool/

[jarek]

> Its not crazy. Facebook just announced something along those lines today

Yep, and it's not exactly a standardized API, neither would it be easy to move a system built on this to the next greatest thing from Twitter or Google. User data lock-in is nice like that.