You may remember reading about OpenID last November, here (OpenID: Another Approach to Identities), but back then there was significant uncertainty over whether it would catch on.

No longer, though. As reported recently on Slashdot (OpenID Foundation Embraced by Big Players), the OpenID Foundation announced that Google, IBM, Microsoft, VeriSign, and Yahoo! all joined the OpenID Foundation board.

Seems like a big "game over" for the other contenders for the OpenID niche. Not sure that anyone else was contending for that niche, other than Microsoft, but now they're on board with OpenID, expect to see a Redmonized version of OpenID that's been embraced and extended.