OpenID Selector !

A new ID Selector from Janrain has been launched today to help make OpenID usage easier for end users. So far there has been a lot of talk around how to address the usability issues with OpenID and of course there have been several browser plugins proposed and implemented (like Sxipper, Seatbelt, etc). But 'ID Selector' is the first one of it's kind - I call it's "one of it's kind" because it's not a browser tool bar. It's a simple DHTML widget that can be embedded into any Relying Party (RP) login page with as simple as adding 2 lines of code. Of course the concept is not new (even we at AOL have a small DHTML Login Widget that we use to embed login module on several AOL web properties, ex. http://music.aol.com) but using it to present different accounts that a user can sign in with, without confusing them about the underlying technologies is neat. I really like this idea and am hoping that this would make the sign in process consistent across all the web supporting OpenID protocol.

That said, there are few other features that I would like to see. If the 'ID Selector' could provide a way for the user to select 'remember my openid at this site' functionality that's RP specific, it would be very useful for the users. Of course there would be some privacy concerns around 'www.idselector.com' knowing where a user is signing into but I am sure there ways to let users disable that if they are concerned about their privacy. Another useful feature might be to let the RP's host the ID Selector on their own sites for reasons like security, privacy and performance - this of course would mean that the users would lose the remember me functionality across the web.

There is also a challenge around how many OPs can the ID Selector display with their logos in the small real estate it has got. Given that there are more and more OPs coming out everyday, it might be a good idea to add an OP overflow arrow the end that a user can click on to see the extended menu of OPs.

Here is a screen shot of the ID Selector (original source):


Update: Just got a response from Brian Kissel (CEO of Janrain) clarifying that the 'ID Selector' does already provide the 'remember my openid at this site' automatically without the user requiring to do anything specific. This is what he says:

In fact it does even more than that.  If an OP is an affiliate of the Selector, 
the very first site they use the Selector on, it will be pre-set to the referring
 affiliate.  Here's a summary of how the selector works:

If the ID Selector can determine a default identifier for the user, it will 
pre-populate the login form so that the end-user only needs to hit the signon 
button to initiate the login.   This is the goal. 


The default identifier can be determined in 3 ways.

1) The OP has used the ID Selector OP API call to cookie the user at time of
 provisioning.   

2) Absent a provider issued cookie, using the last identifier used at this 
particular RP

3) Absent an RP specific value, using the identifier last used at any other 
RP where the ID Selector is installed