OpenID Logins Take too Long

Sometimes it’s difficult to sell OpenID to new users. When people ask about it, I usually praise one aspect of the protocol: the ease of login to websites with an identifier people know and use regularly, e.g. their blog URL. This is an obvious benefit which people are able to understand. Also it’s a fast way to log in to websites. At least, that’s what I thought so far. Though I’m not sure anymore.

When German service Yiid implemented JanRain’s RPX a couple of weeks ago, I fiddled about with it a little while, especially with the various ways of login to Yiid. For those who don’t know, RPX manages logins and authentication for Relying Parties. Users can easily click on the button of a familiar identity provider (Google, Yahoo!, Twitter, Facebook,…) to log in to websites. OpenID is another available option.

So apart from the usual username and password Yiid offers a couple more options to log in now. The login screen looks like this:

On the left side you see the RPX logins, on the right side the username/password login box. As you can also see, the latter login box is pre-filled with my username and password already. I saved these details in Safari before. Also I associated the various available options of RPX with Yiid before and logged in to those services.

Now what’s the fastest way to log in to Yiid?

• Username and password: 1 click
• Google: 1 click
• Twitter: 1 click
• Live ID: 1 click
• Facebook: 1 click
• MySpace: 2 clicks

For MySpace there is another click required (see below). I don’t know why, though.

So what’s up with my OpenID, my blog URL? Well, I have to click the OpenID button, then I have to type in the URL of my blog and click the Anmelden (=Sign in) button.

Oops, that definitely takes some time. It’s the slowest one of all options available.

Of course, things looked a little bit different if I were not logged in to the various identity services before. Then I had to log in to them during authentication. But the same applied to OpenID.

The fastest way to log in is username and password if the credentials are saved either in the browser or in a password manager like 1Password. Oddly, the username/password side of Yiid also loads way faster than the RPX one. I would have clicked login with username and password long before RPX is even loaded.
If people don’t use those features or apps described above login takes longer, of course. But OpenID was still the slowest option (typing in the URL, clicking sign in button, logging in to OpenID Provider, clicking button).

So my “selling” point of fast logins with my own URL is none anymore. There are still other benefits of OpenID, of course, like signing up to new services, being in control of the URL and many more which have to be considered when choosing the right option for oneself.
Also I have to mention that OpenID is also the technology used for the Google and MySpace logins. But still.

Is there a way that the OpenID login boxes can be pre-filled with the correct URL? Can it be saved by browsers or password managers? Would be great!