Many users do not like having to register for each blog where they would like to post comments, especially if they already have accounts on so many other social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace. So a single online ID for several purposes would be ideal, wouldn’t it? That’s the idea behind the OpenID protocol, which started in 2005. It decentralizes the identification of users for various providers and services. In essence, you can create an account on Facebook and connect it to services such as MySpace or even a personal blog. If you want to change your profile for all of these services, that too is decentralized: you simply change the settings on your Facebook account. OpenID is a chance to make the Web and its services more easily accessible. There are reasonable risks and concerns involved, but also many opportunities.
Facebook announced in 2007 that it would implement OpenID, and others followed, which explains why we now find more and more buttons that say “Connect with Facebook” or “Google Friend Connect.
The plug-in allows users to comment on a blog using their Facebook account; and if they are already signed in or on Facebook, they need not sign in again. Users do not have to register for a unique account on the blog because the plug-in retrieves the user’s information directly from the Facebook API.
The plug-in integrates a lot of Facebook functions: for example, users can send invitations and share stories and comments on Facebook, which gives your blog the benefit of word-of-mouth marketing. To do this, you need to activate the plug-in option that publishes a user’s activity in their respective activity feed.
