Maybe you’ve seen it when you’ve commented on a post. A little logo, 
, that permits authentication via OpenID. What is OpenID? According to the LJ FAQ:
OpenID is a decentralized identity system. It allows you to comment on LiveJournal, or on any site supporting OpenID, without creating an account. If you do not have a LiveJournal account and you’d like to comment on a journal that allows OpenID comments, select “OpenID” while commenting. A box will appear for you to enter your URL. Your URL must support OpenID on its end, and you will need to be logged onto your account there. When you hit “Post Comment”, your home site will ask you whether or not to provide LiveJournal with your identity. You can authorize once, or authorize permanently. Your password will never be sent to or from LiveJournal.
According to the Washington Post (also reported on Slashdot), OpenID (which was developed by our own brad), Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has said Micro$oft would throw its support behind “OpenID”. Specifically, at the RSA Conference, Gates is quoted as saying, “Everywhere you go on the Web there are issues about reputation and trust. Some blog environments want anonymous people to [be able to] say anything, and in other environments, they want you to represent some credentials about who you are. And that’s just not going to scale with the kind of password thing we have today.”
The notion behind OpenID is that to login to an OpenID-enabled website (even one you’ve never been to before), you just type your OpenID URI (e.g., your blog URL). The website will then redirect you to your OpenID Provider (e.g., LiveJournal) to login using whatever credentials it requires. Once authenticated, your OpenID provider will send you back to the website with the necessary credentials to log you in. By using Strong Authentication where needed, the OpenID Framework can be used for all types of transactions, both extending the use of pure single-sign-on as well as the sensitivity of data shared.
Gates said Microsoft would support OpenID 2.0 in conjunction with CardSpace, a feature similar in nature to OpenID that is built in to Windows Vista. CardSpace seeks to make managing digital identities easier and safer by replacing usernames and passwords as the means of identifying oneself on the Web.
It’s quite interesting that M$ is embracing an open solution, and one developed by LJ. I’ve always said I’m not wasting time on LJ at lunch… I’m doing research.
