You dont have to create an account (and fill in the profile page yet another time) with a web service to access and use it. Yes, you dont even have to remember (or save in a text file) a huge list of usernames and passwords for the web services you are using. Welcome to the future of online identity, OpenID is here to simplify your life.

What is a OpenID?
OpenID – is an one-stop identification which will grant you access to a web service without having a specific account on it. To put it simply, if you have a OpenID with you, you dont have to create an account to use web services – providing tey support OpenID authentication. OpenID is simply making our life easier, you need to register once with a OpenID provider and get your OpenID. The OpenId will look like this http://matthew.openid.org. Now, with the OpenID supported sites, now, you can use your unique OpenID – which is in this case -  http://matthew.openid.org to sign into the web service. Many of the web services such as Yahoo, Netscape, AOL, Technoati (Wow), Mediawiki, LiveJournal, WordPress and the list goes on and on. All of the major social networking sites (Digg is going first) have agreed in principle that they would support OpenID sign-on as soon as possible.

How do I get a OpenID for myself?
here is the List of OpenID providers
 

Pick one of them and register (with one) to get your OpenID. Depending on the OpenID provider you will get either a URL or XRI as your OpenID. Dont bother about the types – just any of the OpenID should work.

How do I sign-in with a OpenID?
If you visit a site or web service that accepts OpenID authentication, you should see a form asking a OpenID to sign-in.

Type your OpenID in the form and hit Enter. Now, the browser directs to your OpenID provider (the place where you got your OpenID), and you have to verify your credentials by entering a password.

Once you are identified and validated, the browser redirects to your favourite website. Even though, this steps look too long, it happens in a jiffy. Once you have authenticated your OpenID in a browsing session, you can use your OpenID in any number of websites that accept OpenID as a form of authentication. You need not have to have the accounts in all of those.

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