Chris Messina’s post on EmailToID got me thinking about other painless ways to get users to create OpenIDs for themselves.
One solution that popped into my mind, and as it’s quite obvious, may already be implemented, involves an OpenID provider who allows its OpenID creation process to be embedded into other sites (the relying parties in OpenID parlance). Ideally, the user experience would be completely ordinary, except that the pleasant gift of a new OpenID is presented at the end of the process. It would look something like this.
First, the user has the opportunity to enter in an email address. Like in the EmailToID.net implementation, the relying party can first try to autodiscover an OpenID based on the email address provided. If none is discovered, the relying party chooses to use the fictional AwesomeID.com provider which allows for embedded creation:
Lastly, the user is presented with his new OpenID and the opportunity to log in:
Thinking aloud, maybe the registration process can become standardized into the spec of OpenID, just like authentication is standardized now. This would allow for a more open solution than something like EmailToID.net, where that particular service must be accessible for the solution to work.
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