I’m trying to experience more OpenID stuff since I really like everything I’ve heard about it. To this end I recently signed up for a TypeKey account; to see what it’s like firsthand. Unfortunately, my first experience was less than stellar.

I started off here:

and clicked the TypeKey link.

That link took me to a login form, and I entered my username and password. After that, I was directed here:

Since it was “required”, I said sure and hit Continue. I was then taken here:

So that’s not the desired result.

This may well be the fault of the blog owner, having a link enabled for a feature that isn’t enabled, however the overall experience was not a good one:

• Jump through this hoop.
• Surprise, one more hoop – not optional.
• Oops, sorry about those hoops – this isn’t going to work anyway.

I don’t know enough to know why this ended up the way it did, but making sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen is something I think needs to happen for OpenID, etc. to go mainstream. It’s more complicated to use a 3rd party authentication system, because there is more opportunity for a local system mis-configuration to futz things up.

I’ve got faith that this too will mature, but to gain wide adoption these systems need to make things easier, not generate frustration.