Don't Want to Sign In to Yahoo? That's Okay, Use Your Facebook or Google ID.

Yahoo this week will begin allowing users to participate on its properties without signing in to a Yahoo account. It’s a significant move for the company, which had for a long time incessantly popped up login screens (as pictured) whenever visitors tried to do seemingly anything on the site.

Now, users will be able to share articles, leave comments and play fantasy sports on Yahoo by signing in to accounts they’ve created on Facebook and Google. They won’t have to create a Yahoo profile or associate their Facebook or Google ID with an existing Yahoo one (though a Yahoo account is being created in the background that’s associated with the other site’s credentials).

Other properties included in the new login regime (or lack of a regime) are Yahoo! Finance, as well as pages for users to rate movies, music and restaurants. (Obviously for some properties, like Yahoo! Mail, users will still need to plug in Yahoo-specific credentials to create a full-fledged Yahoo ID.)

The beleaguered company is playing this as a move toward openness. And there is some precedent for the move. Yahoo had previously allowed users to log in to Flickr using OpenID logins from Google, and had partnered with Facebook to give users an option, through Facebook Connect, to integrate their accounts on the two sites and send information back and forth between them.

But this latest announcement is different from Facebook Connect; what Yahoo is now offering is a wholesale substitution of another site’s account system. Yahoo for a long time had the coveted advantage as a Web portal of having a large percentage of its visitors logged in at all times to a consistent account across all its properties; that doesn’t seem to be a top priority for the company anymore.

http://twitter.com/motiver Srikanth Madduri

I have seen this long time ago. Maybe it was just a test then. Anyway, Yahoo is half dead now. By doing this, they are agreeing that fact. One day, facebook will just buy Yahoo. I am looking forward to that day.
Anonymous

As OpenID,OAuth and consumer directed identities gain more prominence, large Identity Providers are now beginning to accept each other’s identities as a means of logging into their web properties. Since 2005, Janrain has been helping drive the adoption of consumer directed identities by enabling large websites and prominent brands to become relying parties (acceptors of OpenID/OAuth identites on their site). This is truly a step in the right direction for Yahoo and a big win for the online consumer.
Anonymous

“…that doesn’t seem to be a top priority for the company anymore. ”

Does Yahoo even *have* a top priority anymore? All I’m hoping is that they sell Flickr to someone who will treat it nicely.
http://networkeffect.allthingsd.com Liz Gannes

Good to hear your perspective.
http://twitter.com/SARKARI_NAUKRI SARKARI NAUKRI

Single ID for Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail,…. makes world more easy

:)
http://www.thesarkarinaukri.com
Anonymous

Sounds like you use Yahoo! :)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Paul-Sash/1089785301 Paul Sash

They should sell Flickr to Shutterfly.
http://twitter.com/lhaus Liza Hausman

This really is Facebook Connect (now the Graph API) which enables users to sign in or register on a site using their Facebook identity – account linking has always been optional. Gigya works with companies from ABC to Annot8 to enable this functionality with multiple social network and identity providers including Facebook and Twitter. Some sites choose to link social registration to a proprietary registration system, and others, like Annot8, use it as an alternative to having to build a registration system. The real value of social-sign on for websites is the data it unlocks – from user profile to user friends, so I’m wondering whether Yahoo! intends to provide a richer or more social experience based on this information

Don't Want to Sign In to Yahoo? That's Okay, Use Your Facebook or Google ID.

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