Some changes at ClaimID
February 7th, 2007 - Fred StutzmanAt ClaimID, it has always been our goal to make identity on the web fun, simple and relatively painless for you. We’ve built a company around the values of trust, openness and real desire to help people. After watching the growth in the OpenID space in the past few months, we at ClaimID have made a decision to shift our emphasis. As of this morning, ClaimID is going to concentrate its business on being the web’s finest free OpenID identity provider.
So what does this mean? If you log in, you’ll see new documentation and features like easy code snippets to make your blog or website an OpenID, but in reality not a lot has changed. When we were building ClaimID, we created a tool that allowed you to simply and easily create a powerful web profile. As it happens, we feel this web profile (with things like MicroID verification) provide the perfect companion for an OpenID. Let’s face it - if your OpenID is going to represent your identity online, don’t you want to be able to create a robust profile that verifiably shows people who you are?
At ClaimID, our strength has always been translating the complex into the simple. We want to give you the best solutions, without requiring you to read a protocol or understand code. As web identity plays a greater role in all of our lives, we feel that we can really help people by enabling them with solutions simply. And as OpenID grows (and it will grow, says Bill Gates), we want to be there to help you take advantage of this amazing and useful tool.
We thank the tens of thousands of you who have signed up to ClaimID in our first few months in business, your support and encouragement has been amazing. As we embark on this slightly new direction, we welcome your feedback, ideas and criticism. Only through community support can we build an OpenID provider “for the rest of us”, and we look forward to working with all of you on this goal.
February 7th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
[...] From the official blog post: At ClaimID, our strength has always been translating the complex into the simple. We want to give you the best solutions, without requiring you to read a protocol or understand code. As web identity plays a greater role in all of our lives, we feel that we can really help people by enabling them with solutions simply. And as OpenID grows (and it will grow, says Bill Gates), we want to be there to help you take advantage of this amazing and useful tool. [...]
February 7th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
This is exciting news! You folks have long had both a strong understanding of OpenID and a commitment to helping users build their online identities; I think you’ll do well here. Only problem is that you’re going to be giving me some tough competition at my day job, but that’s probably healthy for us too.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
Hmm… doesn’t seem to be working for me. When I try to login at http://openid.claimid.com/login, it just reloads the login form as if I entered the wrong password, no error message or anything. I just reset my password, so I know that’s not the issue.
(A side note, but given this new direction, it seems a little ironic that this blog does not support OpenID for comments. Perhaps that’s just something in the works?)
February 7th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
ahh, just realized the problem is specific to Firefox (I’m using v2.0.0.1). Safari doesn’t seem to have the problem.
February 7th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I’m on 2.0.0.1 and not seeing any problems. And no I don’t know if I’d call it irony, but we do plan on upgrading the blog.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Hmm.. it’s very strange. I’m continuing to get errors, but will follow up with you offline.
Aside from that, I noticed two interesting phrases… “IDPBox is a open source OpenID server” and “Powered by claimID and JanRain.” Could you comment on what IDPBox is (such as where one could find out more information on it) as well as JanRain’s involvement? Does this mean anything for MyOpenID?
February 7th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Sure thing. We’ll be happy to look into it
As for the IDPBox, I’m sure you know that JanRain produces many of the OpenID libraries used in applications today. The IDPBox is a standalone version of these libraries, known as an identity server. I don’t know if it is still available for download, we were lucky to be able to use it (and we have been ever since we started providing OpenID’s). I hope that helps.
February 7th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Kev - don’t look at it so much as competition, just us focusing on a problem that we care about and can help solve. Hopefully many more will join us over the next year
February 7th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
[...] Two announcements caught my eye since yesterday. First Microsoft announced they are going to support it - well done Kim Cameron and gang. Second, the ClaimID guys have announced a change of direction and they are going to be an OpenID provider too. [...]
February 7th, 2007 at 11:21 pm
Cool, that’s pretty much the benefit I saw in ClaimID anyway, glad you are focusing on that though
February 8th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
This is great news. I’m excited to see the solutions you guys will come up with. I’m curious what your approach to preventing phishing attacks will be. Something like MyOpenID’s SafeSignIn (require login via a bookmarked signin page), or something different? Will you also implement persona support?
This just seems like such a logical move for claimID, I’ll be watching with great interest.
February 10th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
[...] 但是在2月7号，ClaimID的博客上发表声明说他们将集中精力打造成一个最好的、免费的OpenID帐号服务商。ClaimID用户现在登录后已经可以看到一个全新的说明文档和指导教程，和其他的OpenID服务商一样，在自己的网上上加入一些代码后就可以使用ClaimID的关联服务了。 [...]
February 11th, 2007 at 6:32 am
Thank you all. I think it is safe to say we will closely follow accepted best practice and integrate openid 2.0 as it rolls out.
February 13th, 2007 at 12:05 am
[...] wp-xrds Published February 12, 2007 in Blogroll. Tags: No Tags. I starting writing this XRDS (Yadis) plugin for wordpress several months ago, but never really finished putting in the features I had planned. With so much going on in the OpenID community the past couple of weeks, I decided to blow the dust off and clean it up a bit. [...]
February 16th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I’m now using claimid as my openid delegate, but I was using myopenid.net, and they are better currently. I have high hopes for your service, so I hope you brush it up a bit!
Checkboxes next to all the data I want to allow a site to have would be good. Plus a record of what I released to who.
It was a bit odd entering all my data again considering I’d already told you most of it for my claimid page.
May 11th, 2007 at 9:51 am
[...] Online IdentitiesThere is a lot of interest in how you manage what anyone can read about you online. This leads to the question of how someone knows something posted with your name is really related to you. Is there a way to verify that you really wrote the a comment on someone’s blog that has your name on it? OpenID has developed an authentication process by which sites using their authentication protocol could allow you to verify that “it’s really you.” OpenID “is not a trust system. Trust requires identity first.” And, OpenID is attempting to build the necessary standards and processes to make this happen. ClaimID is a site that leverages the OpenID project and enables you (for FREE) to actually build your online profile and be able to authenticate your identity to participating OpenID websites. Through ClaimID, the authentication links to a personal profile that you create and manage. Here’s an update on the direction of the ClaimID. [...]