Passwords are made obsolete with Mozilla’s BrowserID

By Mike Flacy Published July 14, 2011

mozilla-browserid — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Mozilla released information today about a project designed to put an end to the password. BrowserID requires a user to verify that they are the owner of an email address a single time. Once the email account is verified, users can simply click the sign-in button at a site using BrowserID and log into the site with the email address. This eliminates the step of creating a password as well as clicking a confirmation email link from each site. At this point, the user can make comments or use other site functions that require an account. Mozilla is hosting a BrowserID server for developers, but sites can implement the protocol without the need for Mozilla’s server.

Recommended Videos

The technology uses a public key cryptography to verify a user’s email between the browser and the site. This technology is known as “Verified Email Protocol”. There are plenty of alternatives such as OpenID and Facebook Connect, but these present privacy and data concerns according to Mozilla. The advantage of BrowserID is the lack of information traded between the user and the site as well as securing user data from being leaked to other servers.

Despite the somewhat misleading name, BrowserID isn’t tied to Mozilla’s Firefox browser. It works with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari. It doesn’t require direct support from email providers, but they gain greater control if they do support BrowserID. BrowserID also uses Gravatar to pull an avatar image that can be displayed on the site similar to Facebook Connect.

Mozilla hopes to standardize the protocol by working with other identity providers sure as Twitter, Google and Facebook. Developers and site owners that want to experiment with this new technology can visit browserid.org. A demonstration of the log-in procedure can be seen at myfavoritebeer.org as well.

Topics

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.