Yahoo Jumps On OpenID Bandwagon

In a move that will throw many online users for yet another loop, Yahoo has decided to jump on the Open ID bandwagon. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for OpenID. But this marks the third or fourth time in a year that Yahoo has merged log in credentials without taking their users' wants and needs into account. It is my opinion they are trying to become the future OpenID single source, as they have long been driving users toward a single log in credential universe.

The company keeps merging credentials and giving users no real way to keep separate accounts for personal and professional identities, and now they have given users no way to use their existing OpenID identity. That's right, in Yahoo's quest for online dominance against rival Google , it decided to go OpenID without allowing users who already use the service to use their existing account.

This is a move that comes on the heels of other Yahoo credential mergers this past year, like Flickr. In that case existing users were forced to use their personal Yahoo ID, even if the Flickr was a professional photo collection or otherwise not related to the credentials they may have chosen to use for groups and other web activities. By not allowing users to control their own privacy and access levels, Yahoo is losing points with me, and I'm sure it will continue to lose points with its other users if it doesn't solve the problem.

By changing log in methods so many times in a year, Yahoo is keeping its loyal user base confused and in the dark. Since Yahoo tends to draw a user base that wants an easy solution to a variety of web activities and doesn't want a high learning curve, complaints have been rampant about the constant log in credential changes. What has been happening is that users are starting to use logins and passwords that are easily hackable for fear they will have to learn yet another new log in next time they try to do anything that is part of the Yahoo family.

The concept behind OpenID makes one log in credential and one password the preferred, secure method of logging in, after which time you can theoretically control your identity and how it appears on each site you use. However, by not allowing the existing account to be used, Yahoo has effectively negated months of work for users who have chosen OpenID all along to use on other sites. Because OpenID advertises higher security, having an account is smart, and I've been wanting more web sites to go to OpenID as a method of logging in, but a true OpenID, not a branded one.

What Yahoo needs to do immediately is offer a way to pull your Yahoo credentials into your existing OpenID account. Right now all they offer is a way for Yahoo users to user their Yahoo account as a new OpenID, with no way to merge the two. That's great if you are new to OpenID, but not so good for the rest of us. I am quite annoyed that in order to see the alumni site I run, my Flickr account or any one of a number of other things on Yahoo I use, I will have to create a new account. This makes extra work for me, and for other users as well.

Taking the other side of the issue, support for OpenID from such a heavy hitter as Yahoo could create a bridge that makes the idea behind Open ID in general more widely accepted. That would be a good thing, in spite of the awkwardness of their implementation. You could say they are getting in on the ground floor of a movement, and using the requirement of a Yahoo account as the basis of your OpenID is one way to associate the brands in people's minds for the future, should the movement continue to gain momentum.