OAuth

While writing my recent bit on OpenID, I had in the back of my mind that I also wanted to look up OAuth. I don't remember where I heard about it, or why, but that's beside the point. So I decided today was the day to learn about OAuth, at least a little. I can't say what it is, or how it works, any better than is done here, so you might as well just check that out.

I don't see myself implementing any pages in the near future that use OAuth (besides the point that I don't seem to be doing any implementing...). This is essentially because I lack ideas for pages that require interaction with other services. Even more noteworthy, perhaps, is that most (if not all) of the things I do online don't seem like they would benefit from OAuth. I guess I don't use that many services to begin with, and I don't really see the need for them to interact (besides my google services). Perhaps I'm just behind some curve. After all, facebook doesn't particularly excite me, and certainly hasn't replaced any of my usual forms of interaction.

Anyway, I don't want to sound negative about OAuth. I do think it is a good thing, I can see that it fills a job and can make the web a better place. The trend toward providing your authentication details to fewer sites is a good thing. I look forward to the day when I have a use for OAuth.