Yahoo appears close to implementing OpenID, a Web authentication standard that relieves people of the need to remember multiple passwords to log into different Web sites.

Yahoo controls a domain me.yahoo.com, which shows a short message indicating the company will act as an identity provider for OpenID.

Code on pages at Flickr.com, owned by Yahoo, could also let a person use their Flickr login and profile for logging into other OpenID-compatible sites. The code can be seen by viewing the source of Flickr photostream pages, and points to https://open.login.yahooapis.com/openid/op/auth.

OpenID, an open-source project, has gained support from two other major Internet players, Microsoft and Google. However, those companies are not widely providing support on their sites for OpenID yet.

But an early implementation of OpenID by Yahoo could provide a spark for broader support, some say.

"I expect Yahoo's implementation to be a major influence in encouraging OpenID 2 adoption," wrote Simon Willison, a freelance Web consultant and developer who used to work for Flickr. In January last year, Willison launched idproxy.net, a Web site that links Yahoo IDs and OpenIDs.

OpenID is referred to as a decentralized system since no one company or entity controls all of the identity information. It gives users more power to determine who they want to share their identity with and avoids the potential security problems of having a massive amount of data locked up in a single database. The system is also free.

Web sites acting as an identity provider for OpenID give users a unique URL. When a person encounters another Web site supporting OpenID, they can enter that URL along with the password they have registered with the identity provider, which is then verified in order to login at the new site.

The person is then allowed to carry their profile or other information into the new Web site, a concept known as single sign-on. It means that people may need fewer passwords but would be able to securely share their data and login on more Web sites.

A variety of companies and Web sites are supporting OpenID, such as AOL, LiveJournal, Technorati and mobile operator Orange, which is owned by France Télécom, according to the OpenID Web site. Hundreds of other Web sites are also using OpenID.

Yahoo could not be reached for comment.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.