Microsoft To Support OpenID

Bill Gates has announced that Microsoft will begin supporting OpenID. The announcement came during his keynote speech this morning at the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

Interoperability with OpenID, the decentralized user authentication protocol, will be built into Windows CardSpace, Mircosoft's identity management platform, and will be incorporated into Microsoft's relevant authentication and anti-phishing strategies. Microsoft chief architect of identity Kim Cameron will be the company's liaison with the OpenID community.

27B's Ryan Singel breaks it down for us:

OpenID is an open and distributed system that allows
a user to log-in to multiple sites via a single user-name that is a
URL. When trying to log-in
to a service, the user is diverted back to their authentication site,
where they enter their password, and the identity site tells the web
service that the person is who they say they are. Gates, who is pushing for an information world where certificates
– not passwords – control access to services and programs, said
OpenID and Microsofts' approaches were "complementary".

Also, Sxip and JanRain, the leading proponents of OpenID, will be adding support within their user ID systems for Microsoft's Information Cards. This will let users manage all of their identities through their personal Info Cards they've already created. Microsoft will also build support for OpenID into its Identity Server products. Read Kim Cameron's announcement for more details.