Organizing your life online starts with an online identity, something you can use wherever you go on the web. If you don’t know what OpenID is, read our previous post on, What is OpenID?
I feel that OpenID should be one of your first steps in creating your Universal Identity. Therefore, this article is going to review OpenID providers, and highlight their best attributes. It will be up to you to decide which OpenID provider is best for you. You can check out our Social Media Provider Network and select the “OpenID Providers” category to get contact information on all the providers below.
There are several dedicated OpenID providers that is mentioned on OpenID.net. The following is the list of providers with a quick review of what they have to offer.
*Note – This list is in alphabetical order.
Chi.mp is one of the top OpenID providers and has a great selection of tools and functions to use with it. One of the most impressive qualities to Chi.mp is that is comes with a FREE domain name. Another big feature is the “Ultimate Black Book”. This feature is made to help you import your contacts from across the web and your computer. The site boasts that you will “Never lose track of your network again”. The final touch is allowing users to import, publish, and push your content.
ClaimID has a simple focus, make it completely painless to manage your online identity. ClaimID allows you to make your own profile page of all sites that comprise your identity. This function allows you to prove ownership of thinks like your blog or Last.fm profile. OpenID will even notify you if a page about you goes offline. With claimID you can claim your blog, your website and news articles that mention your name into a central place. If someone is searching for you, they previously might not have found all of those important pages. With claimID, you can put your best face forward and let people see the identity you wish to present.
With myID.net, you can manage all of your friends, groups, and contacts across the Internet all in one view. MyID.net even allows you to use your own URL as your OpenID. These guys have even made their own wordpress plugin to add to your blog which will allow OpenID users to comment on your posts.
MyOpenID has been created by JanRain, which offers a suite of products. Not only can you create your typical secure OpenID digital identity, but you can add one of a few products which allow you to accept OpenID on your website or blog. RPX Basic enables websites to accelerate user registration and login success by allowing visitors to easily sign in with one of their existing third party accounts from AOL, Facebook, Google, MySpace, or Yahoo!. A big plus to myOpenID is the ability to become an affiliate partner.
VeriSign allows you to control your identity without ever compromising your privacy and security. VeriSign allows you to add an extra layer of identity protection with the VeriSign Browser Certificate (free) and the VIP Credential (low cost). This provider even gives its users an optional and fully customizable Personal Identity Page which allows you to share information and provide links to your profiles pages at websites such as Facebook, Flickr, and MySpace. You can also protect your important files with another great feature of VeriSign, the File Vault.
YIID – Your Internet Identity is a new service developed to help you build a social identity you can take with you on the web. YIID is an OpenID provider has a big focus on DataPortibility which will soon allow you to hop through multiple communities while taking along your data. I am personally interested in these guys because of their interest in “Social Search”. I am a huge believer in the future of search being social. Not to mention, these guys also offer developers to become Partners and have access to their API for development. I would recommend these partners more to the development community.
While this is not a comprehensive list of OpenID providers, this list will give you much to think about when selecting your own OpenID provider. I would also like to mention that YOU MAY ALREADY HAVE AN OPENID! Check out this link for websites who automatically give you an OpenId. (http://openid.net/get-an-openid/) It is this site which also helped me to write my review and summary.
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3 Comments. Leave new
I have been researching some of these guys for a little while now. I tested a few out. I'm currently testing out Chi.mp. It seems VERY promising. I love the profile/website you get with your openid account
[…] without having to re-type your personal information each time. You can get a list of the major OpenID Providers Here with a summary about what each of them has to offer. A neat thing is that you may even already have […]
[…] without having to re-type your personal information each time. You can get a list of the major OpenID Providers Here with a summary about what each of them has to offer. A neat thing is that you may even already have […]