---
title: "WordPress, 37Signals Join OpenID Bandwagon"
date: 2007-03-07
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2007"
    url: "/tag/2007.md"
---

# WordPress, 37Signals Join OpenID Bandwagon

![](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632im_/http://rww.readwriteweb.netdna-cdn.com/images/openid_jan07.jpg)[OpenID](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://www.openid.net/) has gained two more high profile Internet company supporters. WordPress [announced their support](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://wordpress.com/blog/2007/03/06/openid/) today and also Chris Messina did a bit of snooping and discovered that [ 37Signals support](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/03/06/37-signals-next-app-highrise-will-support-openid/) is nigh. These two organizations join [Digg](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_web_apps_07_day1.php), [Microsoft](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsoft_openid_five_key_takeaways.php), [AOL](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/aol_openid.php), Yahoo, LiveJournal, MediaWiki, and others in their support of OpenID. There are still gaps – e.g. even in today’s WordPress announcement, it’s worth noting that you can’t actually sign into your WordPress blog with an OpenID a/c. But you can (as [Chris Messina explained](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/03/06/wordpresscom-adds-support-for-openid/)) use your WordPress.com URL as an OpenID elsewhere, making WordPress.com an “identity provider”.

Remember [our poll](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/poll_do_you_use_openid.php), which showed that 52% of respondants either don’t have an OpenID account or don’t know what it is? Well that’s slowly changing – and every time a new Internet company supports OpenID, the chances of OpenID becoming the decentralized identity service of choice increase.

But as Marc Canter recently [pointed out](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2007/03/im-in-the-ny-times-today), [Sxip](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://www.sxip.com/) is the loser in all this – having once been the poster child for open identity on the Web. Sxip is still claiming to be “the market leader in [Identity 2.0](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://www.identity20.com/)” though – and it does seem to have a [nice deal with Google](https://web.archive.org/web/20101021005632/http://www.sxip.com/sxip_access_google), which just happens to be the *only* one of the Big 3 not to have jumped onto the OpenID bandwagon yet…

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/wordpress_37signals_openid.php))*