Well, that’s a bit of an inflammatory title. But this screenshot speaks volumes:

I can't log in!

What has happened here is that my OpenID provider, Verisign Labs, is down for some reason while StackOverflow, the site that I’m trying to log on to, is still up.

A single point of failure

While this isn’t a big deal for a site that I use recreationally, it is kind of a big deal in principle: all sites that use OpenID are inaccessible to me, since I only have this single OpenID provider. It is a single point of failure.

Sure, I could have multiple OpenID accounts, such as a “backup” OpenID account at another provider, but this defeats the purpose of OpenID, of having a central point of authority regarding my online identity. If I have to create a second OpenID provider, I might as well just make a native username and password at the site that I’m trying to log into. I could also be my own OpenID provider, but I shouldn’t have to do that, and the average OpenID consumer is not going to know how to do that, anyway. It’s faster just to create a “native account” at the Web site that I’m trying to access and be done with it.

An unnecessary third-party dependency

For any e-commerce business, it’s usually unwise to take on any third-party dependency. Speaking from experience, that third-party will go down for some reason at some point and you will be the one fielding angry customer support calls for something that isn’t your problem. Even worse, if something as critical as authentication through OpenID goes down, then you’re losing sales, and that means that you’re not doing your job.

If you’re going to add OpenID to an e-commerce Web site or a “mission-critical” Web site, then you should implement it as a red-headed step-child, “convenience only” implementation; this way, your users can fall back onto their “native credentials” (those stored in your database) when their preferred OpenID provider explodes. In this way, OpenID is a shortcut, not a single authoritative source, much how like customers use PayPal’s Express Checkout to save time when entering payment and addressing information during checkout. If PayPal’s Web Service API goes down (and believe you me, it’s gone down several times this year alone), customers can still begrudgingly use the “native checkout” to complete their purchase. Some lost conversions due to the inconvenience–and for incorrectly faulting the integrity of your Web site for the third party’s failure–but at least the sale is still actually possible. If OpenID is your only authentication mechanism, and a user’s OpenID provider goes down, then that user is simply screwed. The onus should not be on the consumer to provide a backup authentication mechanism to your Web site.

It’s just complicated

OpenID is still just too complicated. I’m not the smartest software developer in the world by any means, but if I can barely wrap my mind around it enough just to get my first account, then I am 100% certain that our customers would have problems with it:

• Why do I have to go to some third-party provider to sign in? That doesn’t make any sense.
• Why should I trust that third-party provider? I’m not even sure that I trust you!
• I still don’t know which third-party provider to use! Oh well, I guess I’ll use Verisign, at least I’ve heard of them.
• What happens to my credentials when that third-party provider goes under?
• Can I call your business to reset my password when I forget it? I will anyway!

Even with our “native registration” of e-mail addresses and passwords, we had to use an Amazon.com style login form because users kept filling out the “new customer” form even when they already had an account:

Login screen. Amazon’s sign-in screen remains a model to be emulated, minimizing the common problem of new customers who try to log in without having registered. Amazon presents two questions in linear order: (1) “What is your email address?” and (2) “Do you have an Amazon.com password?” For the second question, users can select one of two radio buttons: “No, I am a new customer,” or “Yes, I have a password.” Many other sites present the new- and established-user sections side-by-side, and thereby divert new users to the established-user section through the magnetic attraction of type-in fields. — Jakob Niesen, useit.com

When our users have trouble navigating two fields and a radio button, you can imagine the hilarity that ensues when they are presented with multiple authentication mechanisms. Especially one that doesn’t ask for a password.

A leaky abstraction

While the idea of consolidating your online identity to a single source sounds like a good idea, it simply does not work in practice. Not even the United States government has a consistent picture of my identity: my identity is stored with the IRS, the Social Security Administration, the United States Postal service, the Virginia Department of Taxation, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and the City of Richmond’s Voter Registrar. These are all independent identity stores that, in general, agree that I am who I say that I am, but each identity is stored and updated independently of one another. Consider OpenID the RealID act of the Internet: what happens when your centralized identity gets screwed up? It’s an existentialist crisis and you just have to deal with it: identity is what other people say you are; it’s not what you say you are. Better to have multiple voices confirming your identity than just one.

Conclusions and Delusions

If you’re implementing a social-oriented Web site that is designed to integrate with Facebook or some of the Web-2.0-savvy consumers, then OpenID might make sense. Those nerds may have heard of OpenID and know how to use it, foibles and all. Until the dust settles on OpenID, though, I wouldn’t add it to a commercial site even if you paid for it: nobody has asked for it; it will cause problems.

My general recommendation would be to have the usual in house username and password mechanism that can be supplemented by OpenID. But realize that each alternative identification mechanism that you add runs the risk of customer confusion, bugs, security holes, and increased customer support. When in doubt, leave it out.