According to an article by Joris Evers in Infoworld on Oct. 20, Microsoft has dropped its o’erweening ambitions for Passport. Instead of being the “single sign-on for the Web,” it’s now going to be a service for Microsoft and the few partners who had signed up to use the service. Says the article:

In 1999, the Redmond, Washington-based company envisioned thousands of online stores and other services using Passport, allowing users to sign on using the same user name and password combination used for Microsoft services. But the reality turned out different, as Web site operators balked at the idea of having Microsoft control access to their sites. Aside from Microsoft-owned sites only a few dozen others signed on to Passport…

“Going forward, the mission of the Microsoft Passport service will be to provide authentication services to Microsoft services and products and to Microsoft partners,” she [Brooke Richardson, lead product manager for MSN] said late Tuesday.

This is good news because it means Microsoft will not become the de facto repository of your digital ID. It may even mean that now I can register for Microsoft products without feeling that I’m adding value to to Microsoft’s attempt to put itself at the heart of every transaction on the Net.

[Thanks to the Digital ID World newsletter for the link.]

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