Verisign Labs PIP, my favorite OpenID Provider

As a long-time user of Yahoo, Blogger, and Technorati, I inherited the following OpenIDs:

• pipoltek.blogspot.com
• me.yahoo.com/rexjunjose
• technorati.com/people/technorati/rexjun

In due time, I may have another one courtesy of Flickr. I enrolled at myopenid.com and that added rexjun.myopenid.com to my arsenal of OpenIDs.


My last OpenID provider might as well be the PIP, or Personal Identity Provider, from Verisign Labs. And this is primarily due to their Seatbelt Firefox plugin which adds ease and security when using your OpenID.

SeatBelt detects that you have clicked on an OpenID sign in field while not signed into your PIP account and prompts you to sign in. Once you have signed in, SeatBelt automatically returns you to the OpenID sign in page with your PIP URL filled in. The sign in session continues as normal.

Since redirection to the login page of your OpenID provider is done by the Seatbelt browser plugin, you can be assured that you are sending your credentials to Verisign and not a probable fake one generated by a phishing site.


One other neat feature is support for OpenID delegation allowing me to use pipoltek.com as my OpenID URI in place of the lengthy rexjun.pip.verisignlabs.com. This is made possible by adding two link tags inside the head section of my home page.


Wait.. there's more! You can protect your Verisign PIP account with two-factor authentication by the use of a security card, token, or a Sandisk U3 flash drive. Verisign PIP even supports the US$5 Paypal security key aside from its own.


As a lead player in identity protection services and a recent member of the OpenID Foundation, one can expect Verisign to continue providing innovative solutions supportive of the OpenID framework. So far, I'm not disappointed.