I'm Back
It may be MySpace, but they just proved that OpenID can be just as slick and easy as Facebook Connect. MySpace makes a good point that a huge portion of their users make vanity URLs (myspace.com/crazygirl), which makes them natural candidates for OpenID.
They also cite the user experience summit that Facebook (!) hosted not too long ago as a big help. Couple big wows there: Facebook did something that helped their competitors, and that Facebook supports OpenID at all. It actually shouldn't be so surprising, because in fact, Facebook joined the OpenID Foundation board two months ago.
I've met a lot of people who've been very, very skeptical about OpenID. Obviously, I'm a huge fan and Facebook's and MySpace's joint and strong support is a big step towards justifying my position. Yes, OpenID's user experience has been terrible, but that is a fixable problem, it always has been, and now, it doesn't seem so ridiculous anymore to predict that Facebook will make FBConnect OpenID-compatible in the medium-term future.
To get arrogant for a second, I don't think I've ever jumped on board a new technology (or a presidential candidate) that turned out to be a fad, or a failure. I may seem impulsive, but I have good instincts. So to change the subject suddenly, I can tell you right now, it is not even debatable to me that the Android userbase will surpass the iPhone userbase by 2011, or more likely: the end of 2010.
This conviction has also met a lot of skepticism, but honestly: it is obvious, and it should be to anybody who'll look up from their iPhone and notice the barrel of phones coming out from Samsung Motorola Sony Ericsson HTC LG probably Acer and possibly even a bunch of netbooks over 2009 alone. There don't seem to be many phone makers who aren't making an Android phone. And that's to say nothing of the huge grey market in Asia, where phones usually fitted with a knockoff iPhone or Windows Mobile interface can have a lawsuit-risk-free OS instead.
OpenID and Android are a huge part of the future of the web and phones - which before long, will be difficult concepts to separate.
Ok i put an event in my google calendar 1 year from today with a link to this post. Let's see how your prophecies hold up mr no fad.
Re: Android - Ian really likes it. I find it usable. My major complaint is their "really cool" GPS tracking thing doesn't work very well at all. What's with that?!
Yeah, it sometimes gets me wrong, and I've seen it get others wrong. From what iPhone owners tell me, their experience is similar - it seems a function of the technology (mobile GPS antennas) rather than the OS. :/
Also, I should say that my statement in my post above isn't about whether Android is superior to iPhone or not - which is subjective - just a prediction about userbase, which is an objective metric.
I forgot why but I don't like OpenID. I think I was bothered with the way you are supposed to implement it or something.
I think you hated that your identity was a URL. Which I can understand, but the huge proportion of MySpace users that know their vanity URL does at least imply that the young'uns can understand URLs as identity.
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