Dick Hardt and Eric Norlin have both commented on the new Account Authentication Proxy from Google. Dick and Eric both clearly see Google as creating a ever growing silo. Eric provides a comparison of Google’s Service to Microsoft’s Passport efforts. Eric points out that Microsoft has moved to make their service interoperable after learning from their earlier mistakes.

I agree completely with the deepening silo perspective. I really think though Google understands that it must have an reliable and ubiquitous identity service, if they are going to take advantage of the Cognitive economy.

So I ask myself, Does Google want to maintain its lead in delivering on the cognitive economy and should it wait for the community to deliver a proper identity solution? I think the answer is yes they want to maintain their lead and no they shouldn’t wait. As a business they are obligated to make progress but they must understand without the support of the community they will fail.

I think Google will continue to make progress in developing their identity and reputation platforms and services , while contributing to and inter-operating with the rest of the community. So, Google will deepen their silo then increase their openness and interoperability over time as their customer base and the cognitive economy demands. So as Google Customers we need to demand they increase their openness and interoperability. Just my two cents

Go and check out the posts by Dick Hardt and Eric Norlin, both are worth reading.

Links:
Dick Hardt’s Identity 2.0 RSS Feed
Google Account Authentication: two steps forward, one step back

Eric Norlin’s Digital ID World RSS Feed
Google’s authentication vs. Microsoft’s Live ID