Digital Identities: OpenID and The Google Social Graph API

February 13, 2008 | By Marc Porcelli | No Comments »

Just last week Google quietly announced The Google Social Graph API. Although it’s very early to tell just how significant if at all this release will be, it holds promise. One limit of the Social Graph API at this point is the ease of use; a basic task for those more tech savvy, but challenging yet for the mainstream social networker.

According to Google, “The public web is made up of linked pages that represent both documents and people….If you take away the documents, your left with the connections between people.” The significance of the Social Graph is that it will further assist in the facilitation and ease of knowing whom else you otherwise may not have know that you’re connected to. Also, of significance with the Social Graph is the ability for developers to provide better features for users allowing them to know who their public friends are, much like Facebook, LinkeIn, MySpace and many other currently allow.

On the flip side, and arguably more so approaching the realms of being mainstream is OpenID. OpenID is an open source project, which prides itself on being 100% independent with no ownership. OpenID in essence simplifies the user experience. Best of all users will have the choice of which OpenID provider they choose to use or perhaps more importantly trust!

For users, this means no more remembering multiple users names and multiple login credentials. For business, this means one less barrier of entry and a way to draw new users in methods previously not widely available or supported. Organizations like AOL, Microsoft, Sun and Novell are in the adaption stage with an estimated 10,000+ sites supporting the protocol.

Although the idea of unified login is not new, this is the first time the method will be supported potentially through multiple portals and even competitor’s sites. Microsoft and Yahoo! among others with vast user basses on the portal side have taken notice as a way of attracting more users and creating a better user experience for their current members. In fact, just last week they announced that they have joined the board of the OpenID Foundation.

OpenID is so significant that it’s grown to be implemented by projects such as Drupal which is the cornerstone of Web 2.0. Drupal is used by such services as Six Apart, Apple, Google and Yahoo!.

Perhaps the only barrier to becoming truly mainstream is the lack of public knowledge and understanding on what OpenID truly is. With the efforts of the OpenID Foundation and the backing of larger organizations well on-board, 2008 shows strong promise for the technology.

So is Google’s Social Graph a digital identity, will it derail OpenID’s momentum? Well, likely at this point it is not and will not, but keep you eye on it and see where Google takes it. Regardless it does not have the momentum that OpenID has, but being backed by Google gives is muscle, so it could in the near future.

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