MyOpenID to Shut Down February 1, 2014

MyOpenID, the site whose goal was to allow us to securely have one ID on the web to use for logins, has decided to shut its doors starting on February 1, 2014. According to its founder, Larry Drebes from Janrain, Janrain made the decision to end of life the myOpenID service.

In an email (below), Mr. Drebes says that rather than using one service to securely log in, users on the web have chosen to use more recognizable services, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google, rather than create their own MyOpenID account.

If you have a MyOpenID account, and use it to log into a site, you have until February 1st to change your login method.

—– Forwarded Message —–
From: “Larry Drebes, Janrain”
To: [email protected]
Sent: Wednesday, September 4, 2013 9:42 AM
Subject: Important Update about myOpenID

Hello,

I wanted to reach out personally to let you know that we have made the decision to end of life the myOpenID service. myOpenID will be turned off on February 1, 2014.

In 2006 Janrain created myOpenID to fulfill our vision to make registration and login easier on the web for people. Since that time, social networks and email providers such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Yahoo! have embraced open identity standards. And now, billions of people who have created accounts with these services can use their identities to easily register and login to sites across the web in the way myOpenID was intended.

By 2009 it had become obvious that the vast majority of consumers would prefer to utilize an existing identity from a recognized provider rather than create their own myOpenID account. As a result, our business focus changed to address this desire, and we introduced social login technology. While the technology is slightly different from where we were in 2006, I’m confident that we are still delivering on our initial promise – that people should take control of their online identity and are empowered to carry those identities with them as they navigate the web.

For those of you who still actively use myOpenID, I can understand your disappointment to hear this news and apologize if this causes you any inconvenience. To reduce this inconvenience, we are delaying the end of life of the service until February 1, 2014 to give you time to begin using other identities on those sites where you use myOpenID today.

Speaking on behalf of Janrain, I truly appreciate your past support of myOpenID.

Sincerely,
Larry

—
Larry Drebes, CEO, Janrain, Inc.
Janrain, Inc. | 519 SW 3rd Ave, Suite 600, Portland OR 97204 | 888.563.3082 | janrain.com

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