A Blog About Making Culture
Wither Passport?
October 17, 2004
Microsoft hasn't talked much about Passport lately, but Monster.com sent out an email last week saying that they were discontinuing the option to sign in using Passport. And I noticed today that eBay isn't offering the option to sign in with Passport anymore either. Although the creepy Passport for Kids site is still up and running, and the notice from last March about the Express Purchase service getting killed is still up, but I think the definitive bad sign is that the directory of sites using Passport is gone.
Was there some press release from Microsoft about Passport dying? Did I miss it?
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Olivier Travers
Microsoft opens up Passport service: CNet: "Microsoft will extend its Passport authentication service to the broader business market, including its rivals, in an effort to build acceptance for its service and allay privacy concerns. In addition, Microsoft is renaming its HailStorm We... read more »Critical Section
Sunday, October 17, 2004 11:14 PM: Anil Dash notes eBay is no longer accepting signons via Microsoft's Passport. It came in like a hailstorm, but went out with nary a whimper. [ via Joi Ito ]... read more »Subzero Blue
Passport to Nowhere: So, it seems Microsoft's Passport is going down big time. The whole idea didn't really catch on from the beginning and only Microsoft-owned sites and a handful of close partners jumped on board. And after a bunch of high profile... read more »www.gadgetguy.de - The GadgetGuy
Is Passport dying?: Anil wonders whether passport is going away as an authentication service, mentioning disappearing options in Monster and eBay. The german eBay site still has the passport button - but that may not have anything to say, as they often are a few days b... read more »Lee Wilkins
Anyone seen my passport?: Anil points out that Microsoft's Passport has slowly disappeared read more »ALT1040
links for 2004-10-18: Nick Denton Pornographer Fleshbot venderá películas porno en su sitio (categories: pornography web weblogs) Anil Dash: Wither Passport? Passport fading away? Ahora que lo recuerdo, Passport.com no se ha actualizado en mucho tiempo (categories: micro... read more »TomorrowYesterday - A Dennis T Cheung Blog
2 Interesting Comments: Two interesting comments were posted on my blog today. One was about the entry about why Nordic nations are successful. The other was about the entry on mensa.... read more »jschuur
Passport was mentioned at the Digital Entertainment Anywhere presentation the other day for the new Windows Media Center 2005 Edition as the authentication method for your subscriptions in the new media player.
Jamison
It’s understandable that Microsoft doesn’t want to admit their mistakes, and I don’t think I’ve heard a single thing about Passport since the security breach fiasco and the backlash against Heilstorm.
Since it is still the authentication system for MSN they probably 1) want to distance it from some those sore spots, and 2) want to avoid it distracting/confusing users from the MSN brand identity that they’ve been developing.
You can’t seem to sign in with Passport at Starbucks.com anymore either, it just redirects to customer service.
John Dowdell
About a year-and-a-half ago Microsoft repositioned Passport’s automated identity-authentication towards intranet use rather than internet use: http://news.com.com/2100-1012_3-999494.html
I don’t know whether this has been re-re-positioned, particularly in light of the SP2/Longhorn reprioritizations… search term “site:www.watchingmicrosoftlikeahawk.com passport” doesn’t turn up any hits right now.
Context: I don’t hear much day-to-day on the Liberty Alliance either: http://www.libertyproject.org/
Hmm… there are some structural similarities between these and TypeKey, true…? (All provide a “we’ll vouch for you” service across varied sites.)
jd
Anil Dash
Actually, I think the best analogy to TypeKey is probably Blogger’s comments sign-in or Drupal’s federated authentication. But the fact that we let (and encourage!) people use TypeKey in their own apps had some wringing their hands about TypeKey being evil like Passport.
Judging by the fact that the same people didn’t complain about other blog tools’ centralized comment sign-in services indicates to me that it was probably mostly just people being afraid of something new.
That being said, I’m not asking about Passport because of some ostensible competitive thing, I’ve just always been curious about it. (Some of my very first blog posts were about the Passport sign-in experience.)
John Dowdell
“I don’t hear much day-to-day on the Liberty Alliance either…”
Then again: http://news.com.com/2100-7345_3-5415378.html
Like carrying an umbrella to prevent the rain…? ;-)
(I wasn’t thinking of it as a competitive thing… just noting how one site provides identity services for many sites, regardless of the ends to which that authentication is eventually put.)
“… people being afraid of something new….”
New stuff is fun to talk about, so…. ;-)
kunal
That passport for kids site is definitely creepy indeed. The idea behind Passport is solid - federated identity with a ubiquitous authentication mechanism. I hope Microsoft takes full advantage of it in Longhorn and also encourages developers to understand how important it is…
Scott Mace
Microsoft is taking a different tack with identity management through its Infocard initiative:
http://joi.ito.com/archives/2004/10/18/wheredidmicrosoftpassportgo.html
Scott Mace
Sylvain
Hehe.. some people here would need to get a clue about release notes.
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