Two years ago, I was introduced to Sxip and the work around Identity 2.0. The key standard involved in all of this is OpenID. Here’s a quick recap of OpenID:

OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity.

OpenID starts with the concept that anyone can identify themselves on the Internet the same way websites do-with a URI (also called a URL or web address). Since URIs are at the very core of Web architecture, they provide a solid foundation for user-centric identity.

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To login to an OpenID-enabled website (even one you’ve never been to before), just type your OpenID URI. The website will then redirect you to your OpenID Provider to login using whatever credentials it requires.

OpenID has been in the news lately with two separate announcements from major companies. Both Microsoft and AOL are committing to support OpenID. Microsoft has simply announced support. AOL has gone a bit further and enabled OpenID URIs for every one of their users. That’s a big, big deal. I don’t know anyone without an AIM login.

Just a couple of notes. The most important takeaway to me is that it’s now even easier to start a company. I’m building a new site right now at home and having to write a new registration system from scratch absolutely sucks. I don’t know why we all do it over and over again, but we all do. It’s a waste of time and only takes away from building the great product.

The other interesting thing is that the companies that went this way are the two companies who really have pushed single-sign-on in the past. I would’ve expected the first major company to move this way to be a more tech-saavy, personalization focused company like Yahoo or Amazon. I just didn’t expect a big company like AOL to do something so, well, technically savvy. Of course, after buying WIN and getting Jason Calacanis, even for that short while, they did a ton of smart, savvy things. So maybe they’re more nimble than I thought.

On a slightly different note, I noticed that Sxip has killed sxore and is focusing on Sxipper instead. I think this idea is better and will be trying out the plugin. The idea is a variation of something I thought would be better than the completely web-based approach.

I’m hoping that OpenID providers like Sxipper or MyOpenId or even AOL or Microsoft catch on so that one day I might be able to just build a web site without reinventing the register-login-recover-password loop that seems to be a universal requirement.