One of the annoyances that web users have to cope with on the Internet are that sites and services use custom login solutions that are not compatible with each other.
This means that you have to sign in and out individually on sites. A solution that enables you to sign in once would make things a lot easier for users.
Password managers come closest to the functionality, provided that they tie in with the browser or program used to sign in to sites and services.
Currently webmasters and designers can create login forms that are fundamentally different from other login forms as there is no “login-standard” or login protocol that would standardize web logins.
Mozilla Account Manager
Mozilla’s Account Manager tries to remedy that situation. The Account Manager project was made public a month ago but no program was provided back then to test the concept and functionality.
Yesterday a first prototype was released in form of an extension for the Firefox web browser.
The alpha version of Mozilla’s Account Manager supports several high profile web services and sites including Facebook, Google and Yahoo properties, Mozilla Add-ons, Mozilla Bugzilla and GetPersonas.com.
The goal of the project is to integrate the account manager into the Firefox web browser so that no add-on is required to use its functionality.
Firefox users who are interested in the project can visit the Mozilla Links blog post that contains additional information and a short video or the Account Manager page over at Mozilla which links to the Firefox add-on.
Update: Firefox users interested in the concept may also want to take a look at Mozilla Persona, which was formerly known as BrowserID. I’m not 100% sure if it is related to Mozilla Account Manager, but it sounds as if it is. It basically moves away from the username and password login on the Internet to one that is concentrating on email instead.
The idea behind the move is that emails are unique and can be linked to a single user. Instead of having to enter usernames and passwords all over the Internet to log into different services, Firefox users only need to log in once with their email, and let the browser handle the rest for them. This only works if the web service supports Persona.