Google's New Identity System

Google is continuing their quest to become center of the online universe.  They just released their Account Authentication API, which allows other sites to integrate their login process with Google and lets users use their Google ID to authenticate to any site that uses it.  While I admire their amibition, it's essentially a rehash of Microsoft's Passport idea.

There's nothing new under the sun, is there?  When Microsoft had 99% of the software market they tried this and failed, and now Google is trying.  They apparently think that they have more trust and mindshare than Microsoft had at that point.  However, I think they're going to run into the same problem:  people don't want to tie their identity to a company.  They want to tie it to themselves.

I really wish companies would stop trying to own people and the content they create.  This comes down to a fundamental mis-understanding of what makes the Internet great:  it's a decentralized, democratic place where nobody really owns anything besides what they create.  Google wants to be the beginning, middle, and end of our online experience, but I for one am not willing to hand my identity to Google, Microsoft, or anyone else.  I want my identity to revolve around something that *I* own, such as my domain name.  (I wrote an entire post on this a while back.)  There are plenty of identity initiatives such as OpenID that don't hand ownership of my identity to any one company.  Of course, Google's stock is soaring, they're the latest, greatest media darling, and they want a piece of everything anyone does on the Net.  But pride comes before a fall.

This is not progress, this is a new body on an a car that's been totaled a few times before.