A service that aspired to be the last username and password its members would ever need will soon be no more.
I an official email announcement, Larry Drebes, CEO of Janrain, Inc. said his company would be shutting down myOpenID. The service promoted giving users a single sign-in for all participating sites. Those who still use the system for log-in will have a little time to adjust. Drebes said the service will not officially be shut down until February 1, 2014.
Open ID Becomes the Standard
In the end, MyOpenID did not fail to gain traction because of lack of acceptance for Open IDs.
The company was founded in 2006 to help make sign-in easier for Internet users. But since then sites like Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Yahoo have all embraced Open ID standards, Drebes said.
“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,” he wrote.
He says the company later switched to a business model based on social media log-in.
Drebes said the company is delaying shut down of MyOpenID out of consideration for existing users.
Janrain Inc. is a development company based in Portland, OR. It creates social tools like the Janrain User Management Platform helping clients learn more about their customers online.
The video below explains more.
Bummer, but I can see how the competitive landscape changed and really made it difficult for them.
Unfortunately, that’s one of the risks of coming up with an idea and putting it out there. I think Janrain Inc. should pride itself on being the first to launch it, however, and for the length of time it’s lasted.
Interesting info, Shawn.
Wondering if the shut-down has to do with the lack of revenue.
It was free, right?
The Franchise King®
Shawn Hessinger
Hi Joel,
It’s interesting how companies folding up unsuccessful ventures rarely seem to discuss what went wrong – at least publicly. I would suspect that either they were unable to find a business model that worked because of low adoption (especially after other industry leaders entered the field) or they simply found another model with more promise. Their current platform (see the video at the bottom of the post) would certainly seem to have some fairly obvious business applications.
Jennifer
So they were a victim of their own success, so to speak.
Again, this is the extra step that I am talking about. Usually, you’re given the option to log in with Facebook, Twitter or your Google or Yahoo account. But if you are going to create an OpenID, you have to go through the registration process. The answer is obvious. You skip it. And this may be the reason why people did not receive the idea with open arms.
Stephanie
Although I always understood the convenience of this service, I never quite trusted it. We hear about corporate data breaches every day, it seems. So, for now, I’m satisfied with rotating my passwords with numerical changes throughout various accounts I often log into.
Emily
Yet, it has become annoying how so many applications and pages want you to sign in with your social media accounts and then state they’ll post to them “on your behalf.” That, I think, will be the ondoing of this concept unless they change it.