Have been looking at allowing users to sign in to the site I'm building using OpenId and FaceBook. But what about hotmail users? People I know have either Hotmail accounts, Google accounts and / or FaceBook accounts. Perhaps Yahoo also.
Janrain seems to cover all the bases, but when I use their demo and try to login with my FaceBook account it asks for a ton of permissions that I simply do not want most websites to have. Why the fuck do they need to write on my wall? "Access my data anytime" just sounds creepy even though its probably a pretty basic permission.
I think a lot of people will react like me when a FaceBook connected site asks for too much - I just hit the back button and do not register. Go to another site. Customer lost. Creepy bastards, wanting too much access to my shit. Next thing they'll be sending friend requests.
Their Google account integration must be using an older Google API (not OpenId) cos the UI looks a little clunky. The top of the page says "MYACCOUNT.rpxnow.com is asking for some information from your Google Account". Who or what is rpxnow.com???? Well I know now that it was the old name for Janrain's Engage product but it should NOT be used at the top of my login page. My site is not rpxnow.com
Sure, if you pay Janrain then you can use your own domain name - but I am cheap and the FaceBook permissions thing is kind of a deal breaker anyway. I'll use App Engine's built in OpenId support directly (that will cover Google, Yahoo, Twitter) then use FaceBook s JavaScript API to add those chaps and maybe, just maybe, add Microsoftcocks own protocol later.
