6 July, 2006 - 11:16am

Google has been under the identity gun ever since they announced an Account Authentication system that looks an awful lot like Passport, whereby instead of Microsoft, all your identity info in effect belongs to Google. Sxip's founder and CEO, Dick Hardt was the first to note the problems with this approach on his Identity 2.0 blog, and since then CNN, the Guardian, ZDNet, Microsoft's Identity guru Kim Cameron, and others have commented how problematic this approach to digital identity is.

A sampling of concerns include:

CNN's Owen Thomas and Oliver Ryan, "Google's new Account Authenication system poses some troubling issues -- largely the same ones Microsoft faced five years ago when it tried to introduce Passport, a similar master password for the Internet."

ZDNet's Eric Norlin ironically points out, "Will the market force Google to learn the same lesson? I don't know. On the other hand, one company is clearly advancing the cause of "identity 2.0", "web 2.0", "Net 2.0" — call it what you will — and that company is Microsoft. The other company is deepening the silo and building the walled garden — and that is *so* late 90s."

Sxip's Dick Hardt, "In my OSCON 2005 Keynote on Identity 2.0, I predicted the web services aspect of Web 2.0 would be a driver for Identity 2.0 — perhaps that is becoming true? Hopefully Google is not just going to deepen the identity silo they are currently creating, but will work with others to help realize Identity 2.0."

Microsoft's Kim Cameron, "I personally hope that Google embraces federation, Information Cards and the identity metasystem. They have enough smart people who understand these issues that I expect they will."