Combining OpenID and OAuth for Login + Data Portability
Interesting detail of the flow Plaxo has used to let people invited with an @gmail.com address log in directly from the email using their Google Account (OpenID). The sign in process also requests access to the user’s Google account info and Contacts (OAuth) which can be imported and save the user the work generally required to create an account on yet another social network.
I don’t use Plaxo because I think their premise is a bit odd. They seem to be a place to consolidate your contacts, but they also want me to connect with people through Plaxo; I’m already connected to these people somewhere else… I don’t really care if they are using Plaxo or not, but maybe that’s just me.
Plaxo aside, I would love to see other sites use a similar process. If Yahoo’s OpenID were improved to offer OAuth connections, a site like Dopplr could let users sign up and auth Fire Eagle in one transaction.
Seems like a good idea to me, OpenID/OAuth involved friends what do you think, any gotchas in this process or examples of other sites doing something similar/better?
