OpenID: Lack of Promotion to End Users
15. May 2007 – 21:14 byStan Schroeder of franticindustries blog has a good article on OpenID which is worth thinking about and that is revealing one of the weak sides of it: its lack of promotion to end users. Stan is missing a big sign up button on the site.
My initial thought has been: there can’t be a sign up button, to which provider should it link to? The OpenID.net site seems to be mostly aimed at developers, talking about the specs, authentication and all it implies. While it is necessary to understand how OpenID is working users like Stan stumble across a website which requires an OpenID and eventually they discover that site. However there is no link to OpenID providers. Well, there is one if they follow the Wiki link in the sidebar. But can they really expect a comprehensive list of OpenID providers there?
That link should definitely be in the sidebar of the frontpage. Maybe OpenID needs a campaign similar to Spread Firefox; on the other hand there are sites like I want my OpenID and OpenID Enabled which could serve the same purpose. The OpenID Directory is a good example of a site which is appealing to end users and should be linked to as well.
Time to spread the word.
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