Microsoft and Google are living up to a promise they made in February by showing signs of OpenID support in its product code.
Microsoft Passport and Google Accounts apparently have nothing on OpenID. The online account tool is showing signs of adoption in Microsoft's new HealthVault beta as well as in Google Maps code.
OpenID works identically to the login methods of Google Accounts and Microsoft Passport, except that you can set up your OpenID authentication method on any server and use it for any OpenID-supported site. In other words, you can choose any OpenID provider or set up an OpenID server yourself, and point services like HealthVault to it for authentication purposes.
The move by the internet giants show OpenID is fast becoming the way to log in to your favorite services without fear of locking up your personal data in a corporate server. It also follows Yahoo's move as an OpenID provider, Google-owned Blogger's adoption and the various other sites that are continuing to adapt the technology.
You may already have an OpenID account. To find out more about OpenID, go to the OpenID Foundation's website. To find out how to set up your own OpenID provider, check out Webmonkey's tutorial.
[Thanks TechCrunch and Chris Messina]
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