Plaxo: OpenID and Microformats Support

Didn’t I say I was not sure if I was using Plaxo more regularly? Well, I probably will. Plaxo didn’t just update its core service – address book – but it is also adopting OpenID as a Relying Party (it will also become an Identity Provider soon) and microformats now.

OpenID and Microformats

New users will be able to log in with their OpenID while existing users can attach their OpenID’s to their accounts. This works well; it’s the usual way of logging in to OpenID enabled websites. When signing out and logging in with an OpenID for the first time Plaxo asks for confirmation that my OpenID really belongs to me.

Microformats will be added to public profiles (hCards) and public and shared calendars (hCalendar); those features are not live yet, though.

It is really encouraging to see Plaxo’s implementation of those open standards because the developers seem to be rather enthusiastic about it. It’s not only the very positive blog post announcing it but also a very detailed description of how to become a Relying Party if another way of signing in (username/password) is already implemented. If anyone is thinking about OpenID support for their sites check it out; I have never seen that before (including screenshots of every important step). Awesome!

Portable Social Address Book

Plaxo’s support for OpenID and microformats is also providing a new option for portable social networks. I am not the only one who doesn’t want to add their contacts and friends on every new social network I join again and again; having a way of importing and exporting that data to networks would be much better. Usually people are thinking of existing networks like Facebook becoming such hubs but what about an address book like Plaxo? It has the basics of a hub now. It probably just had to add XFN support to the contact list; maybe offering some more privacy settings so my contacts can decide if they want their data to be machine-readable and open for search engines.

In his blog post Plaxo’s Chief Platform Architect Joseph Smarr writes:

I completely share the vision of an open social web in which users are in control of their data and they can use it on any web site they come to or from. Plaxo gets it too, and our mission is clear: to knock down every wall we find and free your data until nobody owns who you know except you.

That’s a very bold statement and it should be applauded. So if he really thinks users should control that data Plaxo could add MicroID support as well. If a MicroID based on my OpenID was embedded on my profile page it was a good documentation that this profile belonged to me and it was my data, not Plaxo’s.

Anyway, OpenID and microformats support is encouraging enough already. So let’s see what Plaxo will come up with over the next couple of weeks or months.

[via Identity Woman]