MySpace Members To Access OpenID

MySpace on Tuesday announced it will join the OpenID alliance.

The alliance would allow MySpace users to log on to other Web sites without registering. Users' personal information will be used to provide access to third-party sites, so members don't have to create several user names, passwords, and profiles.

"All this will tie together to make it more useful for MySpace users to have MySpace accounts even when they’re not on MySpace. We hope you’ll be able to take your MySpace friends wherever you go," Jim Benedetto, the social networking site's senior VP of technology, said in a statement. "We hope you'll be able to take your MySpace friends wherever you go," he said.

MySpace also announced that it supports movie discovery Web site Flixster and event tracking and planning site Eventful, making it easy for MySpace members to transfer information from their profiles to those sites.

For now, members can use their personal information from MySpace to log on to sites that are considered "relying parties" under the OpenID system. However, users cannot access MySpace through the OpenID identity platform from Web sites that are also considered "providers." If MySpace becomes a "relying party," MySpace could accept users from other sites, making the benefits of the OpenID identity platform more wide-reaching for MySpace users.

Benedetto said that MySpace is considering whether to become a "relying party."

In May, MySpace announced that its members would be able to share their profile information on other sites.