Yahoo Starts OpenID with Web 2.0 Properties

Yahoo today announced that it is supporting the OpenID 2.0 digital identity framework for all of its 248 million active registered Yahoo global users; in a move which marks one of the first steps in the opening of Yahoo and its Web 2.0 properties.

Yahoo’s inclusion of OpenID will open in public beta on January 30, and will allow users to use their custom OpenID identifier on me.yahoo.com or to simply type in “www.yahoo.com” or “www.flickr.com” on any site that supports OpenID 2.0.

On the flip side and in what is a very strong branding win for Yahoo in its partnership with OpenID, non-Yahoo web sites that accept OpenID 2.0 will be able to add a simple “Sign-in with Your Yahoo! ID” button to their login pages. Plaxo and JanRain are OpenID members which will let users login via their Yahoo ID from the first day of the public beta. This is huge for Yahoo, meaning that as the sites which support the Yahoo’d OpenID expand, more and more users will be logging into third party sites. So, in essence, OpenID will become somewhat associated with Yahoo ID.

From an advertising perspective, if someone logs into Plaxo or another partner using their Yahoo ID as their OpenID, then Yahoo and their partner should be able to work together to serve extremely targeted advertising to that user, based upon their Yahoo profile and web surfing interests. This is my own speculation, but the financial draw of allowing such a partnership, on top of the ease of using OpenID, could be a major boom for Yahoo.

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